Olympics: Ostapchuk handed one-year ban

MINSK: Disgraced Belarus shot putter Nadezhda Ostapchuk was handed a one-year ban after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid that cost her Olympic gold. The sentence was lenient because Ostapchuk was completetly in the dark that she had doped, according to Alexander Vanhadlo, the head of Belarus’ anti-doping agency. Vanhadlo said that Ostapchuk’s coach, Alexander Yefimov, was the only person responsible for the violation of the doping code and was banned for four years. “Yefimov confessed that he added the banned drug metenolone into Ostapchuk’s food before the start of the Games because he was worried by her unimpressive results ahead of the Olympics,” said Vanhadlo.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2012.