Olympic News

IOC sanctions Yulia Chermoshanskaya for failing anti-doping test at Beijing 2008

The protection of clean athletes and the fight against doping are top priorities for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as outlined in Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement. To provide a level playing field for all clean athletes at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the IOC has already put special measures in place, including targeted pre-tests and the re-analysis of stored samples from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012, following an intelligence-gathering process that started in August 2015.

As part of this process, the IOC today announced that an athlete has been disqualified from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008. The details follow.

Yulia CHERMOSHANSKAYA, 30, of the Russian Federation, competing in the women’s 200m and the women’s 4x100m relay events, has been disqualified from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, in which she ranked 8th in the 200m and 1st in the 4x100m relay with her teammates. Reanalysis of Chermoshanskaya’s samples from Beijing 2008 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substances stanozolol and dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol).

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Denis Oswald (Chairman), Gunilla Lindberg and Ugur Erdener, decided the following:

The Athlete, Yulia CHERMOSHANSKAYA:

is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008 (presence and/or use, of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete’s bodily specimen) is disqualified from all the events in which she participated on the occasion of the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, namely, the Women’s 200m and the Women’s 4x100m relay, and has the medal, the medallist pin and the diplomas obtained in the Women’s 200m and the Women’s 4x100m relay withdrawn and is ordered to return the same.

The Russian Federation Team is disqualified from the Women’s 4x100m relay. The corresponding medals and diplomas are withdrawn and shall be returned. The IAAF is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned events accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence. The Russian Olympic Committee shall ensure full implementation of this decision. The Russian Olympic Committee shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the medals, the medallist pins and the diplomas awarded in connection with the Women’s 200m and in connection with the Women’s 4x100m relay to the Athlete and to the other team members of the Women’s 4x100m Russian Federation Team. This decision enters into force immediately.

The full decision is available here.

The additional analyses on samples collected during the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012 were performed with improved analytical methods, in order to possibly detect prohibited substances that could not be identified by the analysis performed at the time of these editions of the Olympic Games.

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