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Doping sting leaves 7 Russians suspended - International Herald Tribune
A sting operation conducted over the past 16 months has resulted in the doping suspension of seven female Russian athletes, five of them Olympians, bringing international embarrassment and dealing a potentially severe blow to the country's medal chances in middle-distance running and field events at the Beijing Games.
The women were suspended Thursday by athletics' world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, which investigated suspicious Russian tests for more than a year and accused the seven athletes of illicitly substituting someone else's urine for their own in an attempt to subvert antidoping controls.
Among those barred were Yelena Soboleva, the world's top woman this year at 800 and 1,500 meters, and Tatyana Tomashova, who won a silver medal in the 1,500 at the Athens Olympics in 2004. The Russians denied that doping subterfuge had taken place, but unless the barred athletes succeeded on appeal, those chosen to participate at the Beijing Games would not be allowed to compete.
The number of suspensions, and the varied events involved, raised troubling questions about possible ineptitude or corruption in Russian drug-testing procedures and also prompted concerns about whether a deliberate, systematic attempt was made by coaches or officials to undermine drug-testing protocols.
If the charges are substantiated, "it raises a flag as to some sort of organized initiative to evade detection," said Dr. Gary Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University who helped develop screening protocols for the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The Russian case also illustrates that increasingly sophisticated methods are required to catch violators of drug-testing rules, in particular those athletes who have not failed drug screenings. An athletics official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the IAAF had grown suspicious of Russian drug-testing results as far back as 2006. The tests, given out of competition, were so tidily and uniformly negative that "it was almost too good to be true," the official said.
In 2007, from March to July, the IAAF began to store out-of-competition tests given to Russian athletes. Those tests from 2007 were later compared using DNA analysis with tests given during competitions this year. "They were obviously giving someone else's samples," the athletics official said.
The use of substitute urine is a well-known method for trying to manipulate drug screenings. Antidoping monitors are supposed to witness each sample being provided to make sure it is genuine. In order to subvert this vigilance, some athletes have been known to use a catheter to fill their bladders with someone else's urine, so it appears that they are giving a legitimate sample when they are not. Some women have also inserted condoms filled with clean urine into their vaginas to beat drug tests.
The other Russian Olympians suspended along with Soboleva and Tomashova were Gulfiya Khanafeyeva (hammer throw); Darya Pishchalnikova (the world's leading discus thrower); and Yulia Fomenko (1,500 meters).
The timing of the suspensions - eight days before the Beijing Games, too late to add substitutes to the Olympic team - seemed intended to provide maximum humiliation to the Russians by athletics' world governing body.
Some associates of the suspended athletes asserted that the suspensions were motivated by politics.
"Nobody is providing justification for those people who violate the WADA rules," said Gennady Shvets, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee press service. "It is clear that there is some percentage of athletes that do this in spite of everything, and not only in Russia."
On Friday, the Russian business daily Kommersant quoted Soboleva as denying she had manipulated her samples, according to Reuters. "All of us had the best chances to win medals in Beijing," she was quoted as saying. "I stress once again that I reject the accusations brought against me by the IAAF. I also ask my fans to forgive me for being charged with what I am actually not guilty of."
Other Russian newspapers said the bans appeared to be a foreign plot to deprive the national team of at least five gold medals, according to Reuters. The Sport-Express daily alleged that the samples had been manipulated by a Western company. "Switched," read the paper's front-page banner headline, in large type normally reserved for the deaths of national leaders.
Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from Moscow.
A sting operation conducted over the past 16 months has resulted in the doping suspension of seven female Russian athletes, five of them Olympians, bringing international embarrassment and dealing a potentially severe blow to the country's medal chances in middle-distance running and field events at the Beijing Games.
The women were suspended Thursday by athletics' world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, which investigated suspicious Russian tests for more than a year and accused the seven athletes of illicitly substituting someone else's urine for their own in an attempt to subvert antidoping controls.
Among those barred were Yelena Soboleva, the world's top woman this year at 800 and 1,500 meters, and Tatyana Tomashova, who won a silver medal in the 1,500 at the Athens Olympics in 2004. The Russians denied that doping subterfuge had taken place, but unless the barred athletes succeeded on appeal, those chosen to participate at the Beijing Games would not be allowed to compete.
The number of suspensions, and the varied events involved, raised troubling questions about possible ineptitude or corruption in Russian drug-testing procedures and also prompted concerns about whether a deliberate, systematic attempt was made by coaches or officials to undermine drug-testing protocols.
If the charges are substantiated, "it raises a flag as to some sort of organized initiative to evade detection," said Dr. Gary Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University who helped develop screening protocols for the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The Russian case also illustrates that increasingly sophisticated methods are required to catch violators of drug-testing rules, in particular those athletes who have not failed drug screenings. An athletics official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the IAAF had grown suspicious of Russian drug-testing results as far back as 2006. The tests, given out of competition, were so tidily and uniformly negative that "it was almost too good to be true," the official said.
In 2007, from March to July, the IAAF began to store out-of-competition tests given to Russian athletes. Those tests from 2007 were later compared using DNA analysis with tests given during competitions this year. "They were obviously giving someone else's samples," the athletics official said.
The use of substitute urine is a well-known method for trying to manipulate drug screenings. Antidoping monitors are supposed to witness each sample being provided to make sure it is genuine. In order to subvert this vigilance, some athletes have been known to use a catheter to fill their bladders with someone else's urine, so it appears that they are giving a legitimate sample when they are not. Some women have also inserted condoms filled with clean urine into their vaginas to beat drug tests.
The other Russian Olympians suspended along with Soboleva and Tomashova were Gulfiya Khanafeyeva (hammer throw); Darya Pishchalnikova (the world's leading discus thrower); and Yulia Fomenko (1,500 meters).
The timing of the suspensions - eight days before the Beijing Games, too late to add substitutes to the Olympic team - seemed intended to provide maximum humiliation to the Russians by athletics' world governing body.
Some associates of the suspended athletes asserted that the suspensions were motivated by politics.
"Nobody is providing justification for those people who violate the WADA rules," said Gennady Shvets, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee press service. "It is clear that there is some percentage of athletes that do this in spite of everything, and not only in Russia."
On Friday, the Russian business daily Kommersant quoted Soboleva as denying she had manipulated her samples, according to Reuters. "All of us had the best chances to win medals in Beijing," she was quoted as saying. "I stress once again that I reject the accusations brought against me by the IAAF. I also ask my fans to forgive me for being charged with what I am actually not guilty of."
Other Russian newspapers said the bans appeared to be a foreign plot to deprive the national team of at least five gold medals, according to Reuters. The Sport-Express daily alleged that the samples had been manipulated by a Western company. "Switched," read the paper's front-page banner headline, in large type normally reserved for the deaths of national leaders.
Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from Moscow.