Sochi Olympics: Two athletes test positive for banned substances

A German biathlete and an Italian bobsledder have been kicked out of the Sochi Olympics after becoming the first athletes to fail doping tests at the Winter Games.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle from Germany and William Frullani of Italy each tested positive for banned stimulants.

Sachenbacher-Stehle had competed in five events in Sochi but had not won any medals. Frullani had yet to compete.

Sachenbacher-Stehle, who won two gold medals and three silver medals in cross-country skiing at previous Winter Games, blamed the positive test on a nutritional supplement and said she had never knowingly taken performance-enhancing drugs.

“I am going through the worst nightmare that you can imagine, because I am unable to explain at all how there could be a positive test,” she said in a statement.

There has now been no clean Winter Games since 1998 in Nagano, Japan.

The International Olympic Committee announced that there would be 2,453 tests administered at the Sochi Olympics for some 2,894 athletes.

Seven positive results were reported at both the 2002 Salt Lake City and 2006 Turin Games, mostly in cross-country skiing. One positive test came out of Vancouver in 2010.

A new type of testing is being used for the first time at the Olympics, called a “long-term metabolites” test, that is able to detect drugs that were taken up to six months before a test, much longer than previous tests.

Athletes can be tested during the Olympic Games as well as out of competition at any time in the years between Olympics.

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