{"id":408,"date":"2018-02-19T13:10:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T12:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=408"},"modified":"2018-02-19T13:10:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T12:10:27","slug":"russian-curler-banished-from-winter-olympics-after-failed-drug-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"Russian curler banished from Winter Olympics after failed drug test"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky has been formally charged with a doping offence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium. He is now likely to be stripped of his mixed curling bronze medal, won with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova last week, and there are also growing questions about the International Olympic Committee\u2019s decision to allow 168 Russians to compete here under a neutral flag despite the country\u2019s massive state-sponsored doping programme in Sochi.<\/p>\n

But as Krushelnitsky was leaving the\u00a0Winter Olympics<\/a>\u00a0on Monday morning his Olympic Athletes of Russia team-mates were insisting that he was innocent. \u201cWe were all shocked when we found out,\u201d said Viktoria Moiseeva. \u201cOf course we very much hope it was some kind of mistake. With us it\u2019s not faster, higher, stronger; it\u2019s about being more accurate. I can\u2019t imagine what kind of drugs you could use in curling \u2026 so it\u2019s very hard to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krushelnitsky has told Russian officials he fears a team-mate who was not selected for the Winter Olympics spiked his drink with meldonium at a training camp before he travelled to South Korea. The drug, which was banned in 2016, led to Russian tennis player and former world No 1\u00a0Maria Sharapova being barred from competition<\/a>\u00a0for 15 months.<\/p>\n