News of two more drug cases emerged on day seven of the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Uzbekistan shot putter Olga Shchukina had been thrown out of the Games after testing positive for a banned anabolic agent on Aug. 14. The 27-year-old, who finished last in Wednesday’s shot put competition, had protested her innocence claiming to have ingested the drug accidentally in cough medicine. Details of the case were revealed by the IOC shortly after confirmation from Greek Olympic officials that one of their athletes, later identified by his coach as weightlifting bronze medalist Leonidas Sampanis, had failed a test.
A total of 12 athletes — eight weightlifters, two baseball players, one boxer and Shchukina — have now been confirmed as having failed drug tests by the IOC and sports officials since July 30. Two more — Greek sprint stars Kostadinos Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou — withdrew from the games after facing sanction for failing to take a drug test.
IOC officials had forecast the possibility of record drug cases at this year’s Olympics amid a sharp increase in controls and ever more sophisticated testing procedures. World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound said in an interview the body would seek to widen its net to target coaches and sports officials.
“There are very few accidental cases of doping. Most of them are organized programs, designed by, implemented by, encouraged by, and condoned by coaches and sports officials” said Pound. A new extension is to be made to the WADA doping control form that every athlete must sign. Within the next few months athletes will also have to list the name of their coach and doctor.
Russia Win Women’s Team Epee Gold
Russia retained the Olympic women’s fencing team epee title with a 34-28 win against Germany in the final yesterday, attributing their triumph to their failure in the individual competition.
“It was a difficult match because the Germans were very strong but it is very special to win as it means we have now won the gold twice in succession,” said Russian substitute Karina Aznavourian, who played in the final ahead of Anna Sivkova.
She said failure in the individual women’s epee may have been the key to Russia’s victory in the team competition.
Aznavourian, who won gold in the same event in Sydney four years ago, did not compete in the individual in Athens and none of her teammates Tatiana Logounova, Oxana Ermakova and Sivkova made it into the last eight. “The reason we won is the lack of success in the individual tournament,” said Aznavourian. “That has forced us to invest more time in our teamwork. We have worked hard. I don’t think anyone has worked harder so I think we deserved our win.”
The Germans, the top seeds, reached the final only after coming from behind to win both the quarterfinal against Greece and the semifinal against France in extra time.
Rapp said the Germans had been fortunate to get to the final. “We won both of our previous matches very late in extra-time so I think we had all the luck that we needed,” he said.
Laura Flessel-Colovic, the individual silver medalist, helped France to take the bronze with a comfortable 45-37 win against Canada, who had reached the semifinals of any discipline in the fencing hall for the first time.
