MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Russia’s 2022 Olympic Champion in the women’s cross-country skiing relay event Veronika Stepanova was tested the most times for banned substances among national female cross-country skiers this year during inspections from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), the agency stated in a document, which was provided to TASS on Thursday.
RUSADA has sent doping officials to test Stepanova three times already this year.
Stepanova, 22, is a Russian cross-country skier, and won a gold medal in the women’s 4x5 kilometer relay at the 2022 Winter Games in China.
On March 7, the agency reported that it has collected 1,860 doping samples since the start of the year (899 were reported to have been collected in January).
RUSADA Director General Veronika Loginova told TASS in late December that the agency had met its target for 2022 in terms of doping testing of athletes ahead of schedule with the reported amount of those tested standing at over 11,000. In all, the agency collected 11,053 doping samples over the past year.
RUSADA inked a cooperation agreement in late March of last year with the Turkish anti-doping laboratory, which had valid accreditation from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Under Russia’s limited air traffic with Europe at that time, the agreement allowed RUSADA to conduct testing of athletes’ blood samples within the required period, as well as carry on with its program on athletes’ biological passports.
WADA-RUSADA standoff
On December 9, 2019, the WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) approved the recommendations of its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to revoke the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and to strip Russia of the right to participate in major international sports tournaments, including the Olympics, Paralympics and world championships, for a period of four years.
On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.