VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Russian ice hockey player Svetlana Terentyeva became the first athlete to test positive at the Vancouver Olympics but escaped a ban as she took the substance before the Olympic period, the International Olympic Committee on Thursday.
Terentyeva used a light stimulant contained in an over-the-counter nose spray that is not banned in out-of-competition tests but was still in her body when tested in Vancouver ahead of the Feb. 12 to 28 Games, IOC Vice President Thomas Bach said.
“This is the first doping case for Vancouver,” Bach told an IOC session.
“This case concerns an athlete who took a light stimulant even before the period of the Games, a light stimulant which is usually not prohibited out of competition but during the Games.”
The IOC said in a statement that she had tested positive for tuaminoheptane, a prohibited substance “in competition” but not “out of competition” on Feb. 6 in a urine sample.
“During the hearing, the athlete admitted that she had used Rhinofluimucil under prescription to cure a bad head cold in January, but that she had stopped using it on Feb. 4, 2010, as she knew the substance would be prohibited during the period of the Olympic Games, starting on Feb. 4, 2010,” it said.
The IOC said the prohibited substance would not have affected her performance as it would have been completely out of her system by the time of her team’s first game on Feb. 14. This is her first anti-doping rule violation.
Bach said the commission chose to reprimand the athlete, considering it a “very special case.”
“With regard to the consequences we thought that it would be fair to issue a reprimand for this special case rather than sending the athlete home and disqualifying her which seemed too severe in this very special case,” he said.
Normally, an athlete testing positive at the Olympics is automatically disqualified and expelled from the games.
Terentyeva remains eligible to compete at the games.
The IOC said the Russian team doctor was aware that Terentyeva had been taking the medication and the player was “totally open and cooperative” with the investigation.
More than a half-dozen Russian biathletes and cross-country skiers have been suspended in the past year for using blood-boosting drugs. IOC president Jacques Rogge said last week that he urged President Dmitry Medvedev and other officials to crack down on cheaters.
The IOC is conducting more than 2,000 urine and blood tests in Vancouver, compared with 1,200 in Turin four years ago. Athletes can be tested out-of-competition at any time and any place.
As of Wednesday, the IOC said it had collected 634 doping samples since the opening of the athletes’ village on Feb. 4.
There was only one positive test during the 2006 Turin Games — Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver medal for use of a stimulant. She is back with the Russian team for the Vancouver Games under her new married name of Olga Medvedtseva.
(Reuters, AP)