A Doper Has Been Banned, Again

Originally taken from this week's Weekend Recap.

Now for the bad news. The London Olympic 1500m champion, Asli Cakir Alptekin, “has been provisionally suspended after abnormalities were detected in her blood profile...” This confirms months of speculation about Alptekin starting from minutes after the Olympic final to a few weeks ago.

Also last week, Russia’s Yelena Arzhakova was banned after abnormalities had been found in her biological passport (read: doping). The tarnished Arzhakova won gold at the ’11 European U23 Championshis and placed sixth in the Olympic Games 800m.

A few days later, it was announced that the 2012 Olympic discus silver medalist, Darya Pishchalnikova, had tested positive for the banned substance oxandrolone. The kicker is that her “original test was negative, but her sample was checked again months later based on a more advanced testing method introduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency.”

The kicker’s kicker? Did we mention that Arzhakova served a doping ban from July ’08 to April ’11, Pishchalnikova had been banned from ’07 to ’09, and Alptekin was banned from ’04 to ’06?

The argument “well X isn’t on something because X never tested positive” is and always has been, totally invalid. If you’ve ever wondered how far ahead the drug users are compared to the testers, the answer is far enough.



To the women who cheated out Olympians out of a gold medal: How does it feel to not have a soul?

I think British Olympic Lynsey Sharp, who took second to Arzhakova at the '11 European U23 Championships said it best:

It makes me sick that I was denied the opportunity to do a lap of honour and stand on the top of the podium with my national anthem playing

— Lynsey Sharp (@LynseySharp) April 30, 2013