Biathlete Stripped of Medal

A Russian biathlon star who tested positive for a stimulant said to increase endurance as well as tolerance to cold was stripped Thursday of a silver medal and thrown out of the Turin Games, the first athlete tripped up in the tightest doping protocols in Winter Games history.

Olga Pyleva, 30, one of Russia’s leading biathletes, with gold and bronze medals from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, tested positive for the stimulant cardephon after finishing second Monday in the 15-kilometer event.

“It’s a shocking situation,” Pyleva, born and raised in Siberia, told Russia’s state-run First Channel, according to the Associated Press, “because I’ve always been against using banned medications.”

Pyleva’s whereabouts late Thursday could not be determined. Italian law calls for criminal sanctions in doping matters; it remained unclear whether police or prosecutors had opened an investigation, or whether Pyleva was still in Italy. She had attended the hearing Thursday afternoon at a Turin hotel at which the International Olympic Committee found the doping violation.

Anti-doping experts awaited the next turn in the matter with keen interest. “I am assuming the IOC would not want somebody to be arrested,” said Ed Edmonds, a law professor and doping expert at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. “They don’t want to have on everyone’s ‘Nightly News’ [an athlete] in handcuffs.”

The IOC stripped Pyleva of her silver medal. Martina Glagow of Germany moved from third to second, and another Russian, Albina Akhatova, from fourth to third.

Russian officials said Thursday that Pyleva had taken an over-the-counter product called phenotropile, sold as vitamins, after twisting an ankle last month. Olympic doping rules rely on what’s called “strict liability,” meaning an athlete is liable if a banned substance is found in his or her system.