The International Olympic Committe (IOC) has stripped Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky the mixed doubles curling bronze medal he won at the Winter Olympics after admitting to using meldonium. The IOC will reallocate the medal to Norwegian pair of Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, who had originally finished fourth.
Krushelnitsky had denied taking meldonium, which increases blood flow. This prompted the Olympic Athletes of Russia delegation to institute a criminal investigation to determine how the positive test happened.
A CAS statement read: “The athlete has admitted the anti-doping rule violation.
“He is disqualified from the mixed doubles curling event at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 and the results obtained by the team OAR at the same event are disqualified.”
“The athlete has accepted a provisional suspension beyond the period of the Games and reserved his rights to seek the elimination or reduction of any period of ineligibility based on ‘no fault or negligence’ following the conclusion of the Games.”
The 25-year-old was one of the 168 athletes accepted to be part of the Olympic Athletes from Russia team after Russia’s Olympic Association was suspended from participating in Pyeongchang over state-sponsored doping at Sochi 2014.
