Documents won't save biathlete's silver medal

Panel rejects Russian Pyleva's claim January test explains doping violation

Kerstin Joensson / AP

Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva received a two-year ban for failing a drug test.

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updated 9:27 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva hoped documents from a January drug test could support her explanation for a doping violation that got her thrown out of the Turin Olympics.

The paper trail appeared to have dried up Monday.

A controversy flared briefly when the president of the International Biathlon Union, Anders Besseberg, said he was investigating reports that documents detailing Pyleva’s January test had been swiped during a vehicle break-in.

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Pyleva, who lost a silver medal when she was expelled from the games, had hoped those results would show she was unwittingly taking the banned substance when a doctor treating her for an ankle injury gave her an over-the-counter medication.

At a hearing before the International Biathlon Union, she questioned why carphedon didn’t show up during the out-of-competition test she was given at Antholz, Italy, which would have alerted her to the problem.

But in a release Monday, Besseberg’s group said out-of-competition tests generally are not analyzed for stimulants.

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“The pre-Olympic out-of-competition tests of WADA and IBU at Antholz/Anterselva did not disclose any forbidden substance on any athlete according to the out-of-competition program,” the IBU said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The statement did not definitively say whether documentation of Pyleva’s January test had been found. Besseberg didn’t return a phone message following the posting of the release.

Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said even had Pyleva tested positive for the stimulant last month, she wouldn’t have been punished because the stimulant is banned only in competition.

All that mattered, Pound said, was that she came back positive during the Olympics.

“The fact of the matter is she took something she knew was on the list and she tested positive and I don’t have too much sympathy for that,” he said. “Whatever may have happened, she took the stimulant and tested positive in competition.”

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Pyleva was the first athlete caught in the tightest drug net in Winter Olympics history. She is one of the biggest stars in biathlon, a sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle target shooting. It is Europe’s most popular televised winter sport, and typically draws more than 30,000 spectators to World Cup events.

Pyleva also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.