Related case:
IOC 2016 IOC vs Iryna Kulesha (Beijing Olympiad)
October 19, 2016
Ms. Iryna Kulesha is a Belarussian Athlete competing in the Women’s 75 kg weightlifting event at the London 2012 Olympic Games. She also competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
In 2016, the IOC decided to perform further analyses on certain samples collected during the 2012 Olympic Games. These additional analyses were performed with analytical methods which were not available in 2012.
In July 2016 the International Olympic Committee reported a second anti-doping rule violation against the Athlete after her 2012 A and B samples tested positive for the prohibited substances dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol) and stanozolol.
After notification the Athlete filed a statement in her defence and waived her right to be heard for the IOC Disciplinary Commission.
The Athlete denied having used performance-enhancing substances. As an explanation for the presence of the Prohibited Substances, she raised the hypothesis that the substances may have been contained in food supplements bought in Russia at that time.
Previously the Athlete’s samples provided at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games tested positive for the prohibited substance turinabol. On 19 October 2016 the IOC Disciplinary Commission sanctioned the Athlete for this anti-doping violation.
The Commission finds in this case that the Athlete does not bring forth any element challenging the validity of the analytical results and concludes that the Athlete has committed a second anti-doping rule violation consistent with intentional use of prohibited substances specifically ingested to deliberately improve performance. The fact that the metabolites of two doping substances, which are “classical” doping substances, were found, supports this consideration.
Therefore the IOC Disciplinary Commission decides on 10 November 2016 that the Athlete, Iryna Kulesha:
1.) is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 (presence, and/or use, of Prohibited Substances or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete’s bodily specimen),
2.) is disqualified from the event in which she participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games London 2012, namely the Women’s 75 kg weightlifting event, in which she ranked 3rd and for which she was awarded a bronze medal, a medallist pin and a diploma.
3.) has the medal, the medallist pin and the diploma obtained in the Women’s 75 kg weightlifting event withdrawn and is ordered to return the same.
4.) The IWF is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned event accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.
5.) The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus shall ensure full implementation of this decision.
6.) The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the medal, the medallist pin and the diploma awarded in connection with the Women’s 75 kg weightlifting event to the Athlete.
7.) This decision enters into force immediately.
