Russian Paralympian Nikolay Polukhin has been stripped of medals for violating anti-doping guidelines – 11 years after he received them on the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi.
The Worldwide Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) impartial anti-doping tribunal discovered Para-biathlon athlete Polukhin supplied urine samples that had been tampered with throughout the Video games, an occasion overshadowed by Russian state-sponsored doping.
DNA proof confirmed that Polukhin supplied ‘clear’ urine throughout the Video games that could possibly be ‘swapped’ with samples that might have examined optimistic for trimetazidine (TMZ).
TMZ is a medicine that will increase blood circulation to the guts and stimulates the metabolism of glucose, which might enhance endurance.
Forensic evaluation of the pattern bottle confirmed “scratches and marks and a urine residue tooth mark that might solely have been brought on by somebody closing, then re-opening, then reclosing the pattern bottle.”
The tribunal mentioned that evaluation of the urine carried out in 2018 demonstrated that the composition of the urine had modified because the 2014 evaluation by the Sochi laboratory.
Polukhin, now 42, will forfeit his gold medal from the Males’s Para-biathlon 15km Visually Impaired competitors and silvers from the identical occasion at 7.5km and 12.5km distances.
The tribunal discovered that the athlete’s conduct throughout the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games was “significantly egregious” and “considerably undermined the integrity of the occasion”.
It mentioned that Polukhin didn’t present “any logical or believable rationalization” for the proof of pattern swapping along with his urine.
Polukhin filed an enchantment in opposition to the choice with the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport, however this was withdrawn earlier this month after he didn’t pay the advance of prices.
The tribunal made its resolution on 25 September, 2024, however beneath guidelines couldn’t disclose the choice till the completion of the appeals course of.
The IPC’s head of anti-doping Jude Ellis mentioned: “The decision of this case attracts a line beneath what has been a long-running course of into potential anti-doping rule violations by Russian athletes on the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games.”
The IPC confirmed to BBC Sport that there are not any additional investigations referring to Sochi 2014.-BBC
