IPC panel finds Russian Paralympian guilty of doping, 10 years after Sochi Winter Games

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) The Independent Anti-Doping Tribunal of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has found Para cross country and Para biathlon athlete Nikolay Polukhin of Russia committed an anti-doping rule violation at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Due to the verdict after a decade, Polukhin’s individual results from the event — including one gold and two silver medals — have been disqualified. He was found guilty of doping which had escaped detection for years because of the Russian conspiracy.

The charges arose from investigations by the IPC into the evidence provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about the state-sponsored doping programme in Russian sports between (at least) 2012 and 2015. During that time period, the Moscow and Sochi laboratories utilised a ‘Disappearing Positive Methodology’ to conceal presumptive adverse analytical findings and, at the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, swapped out ‘dirty’ urine samples for ‘clean’ urine obtained from athletes for that purpose.

On March 7, 2023, the IPC charged the athlete with the Use of a Prohibited Method (specifically, tampering by way of urine substitution) in breach of Article 2.2 of the 2011 IPC Anti-Doping Code.

The athlete admitted using trimetazidine (TMZ) out-of-competition in February 2014 (which was permitted at that time) but denied knowledge of or participation in any sample swapping in March 2014. A hearing was held before the IPC’s Independent Anti-Doping Tribunal, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) informed in a statement on Thursday.

Based on the detailed scientific and factual evidence presented by the IPC, the Independent Tribunal found that:

1. In 2014 a state-sponsored doping scheme existed in Russia, but the Sochi laboratory was not expecting to have to swap samples for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games (as it had done for the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014). Therefore, the Sochi laboratory did not possess a clean urine bank for Russian Paralympic athletes (as it had for Russian Olympic athletes).

2. During the Paralympic Winter Games, the Sochi laboratory detected presumptive adverse analytical findings for TMZ in the samples of several Russian Para cross-country skiers and biathletes (including the athlete). Analysis of the samples was stopped, and the samples were reported negative by the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS).

However, because the samples would be placed in long-term storage for possible reanalysis, the Russian authorities knew there was a risk that if the samples were later re-analyzed, the TMZ findings and the cover-up would be discovered. To eliminate that risk, the ‘dirty’ urine inside the sample bottles was thrown away and replaced with ‘clean’ urine.

In the athlete’s case, forensic analysis of the sample bottle showed scratches and marks and a urine residue tooth mark that could only have been caused by someone closing, re-opening, and then reclosing the sample bottle.

Analysis conducted in 2018 of the urine in the bottle at that time demonstrated that the composition of the urine had changed since the 2014 analysis by the Sochi laboratory. DNA analysis confirmed that the urine swapped into the bottle was a DNA match for the athlete.

According to the Independent Tribunal, there was ‘no other reason’ to re-open the sample bottles ‘other than to swap the urine’ and the athlete must have ‘actively cooperated in the provision of clean urine to the Russian authorities for the purpose of Sample swapping’ to facilitate that.

The athlete did not provide ‘any logical or plausible explanation’ for the evidence of sample swapping with his urine, and ‘there is simply no other logical explanation’.

The Independent Tribunal upheld the anti-doping violation charge. As the violation arose during Games time, the rules required the Independent Tribunal to determine the consequences of the violation in relation to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games only.

All other consequences for the violation (including the applicable period of ineligibility) will be determined in due course by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and the International Biathlon Union (IBU).

The Independent Tribunal found that the athlete’s conduct during the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games was ‘particularly egregious’ and ‘significantly undermined the integrity of the event’.

In accordance with 2011 IPC Anti-Doping Code Articles 9 and 10.1, the Independent Tribunal disqualified all of the athlete’s individual results from Sochi 2014. As a result, the athlete will forfeit his gold medal from the Men’s Para biathlon 15km Visually Impaired competition, his silver medal from the Men’s Para biathlon 7.5km Visually Impaired competition, and his silver medal in the Men’s Para biathlon 12.5km Visually Impaired competition.

The athlete initially filed an appeal against the decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the appeal was deemed withdrawn in March 2025 after the athlete failed to pay the advance of costs.

Jude Ellis, the IPC’s Head of Anti-Doping, said: “After the publication of the 2016 McLaren Report into state-sponsored doping in Russia, the IPC investigated several highly complex cases related to Russian athletes who competed at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

“Due to the extremely unique nature of these cases – with no positive samples available to call upon as is usual in anti-doping cases – gathering sufficient scientific and factual evidence to meet the threshold to charge an athlete with an anti-doping violation has been difficult.

“Following analysis of a huge amount of data obtained through WADA investigations, Nikolay Polukhin’s case met the evidential threshold to charge the athlete with an anti-doping rule violation. The resolution of this case draws a line under what has been a long-running process into potential anti-doping rule violations by Russian athletes at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

“The IPC is grateful to WADA for the support received during this long process,” Jude Ellis said.

In addition to Polukhin’s case, based on evidence provided by WADA about Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme, the IPC suspended Russian Para swimmer Aleksey Lyzhikhin for a period of two years in June 2024, while the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has also charged several Russian Para athletes.

–IANS

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