MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russia’s 2010 Olympic Champion in biathlon Svetlana Sleptsova has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland against her suspension, which was imposed last month by the International Biathlon Union (IBU), her lawyer Alexei Panich told TASS on Thursday.

"Olympic Champion Svetlana Sleptsova has filed an appeal with CAS against the IBU decision of her suspension," Panich stated. "We would like to reiterate that on February 11 the IBU found Sleptsova guilty of violating anti-doping regulations ordered a two-year suspension for her."

The IBU slapped the Russian biathlete with a two-year ban on February 11 citing results from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory’s database, which was handed over to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2016 by laboratory’s ex-chief Grigory Rodchenkov.

Sleptsova, 33, wrapped up her sports career in 2017. She is the 2010 Olympic champion in biathlon relay and the 2009 IBU World Champion in the relay discipline and addition to her bronze of the 2008 IBU World Championship in mixed relay. She is also the winner of five various stages of the IBU World Cup in individuals.

In an interview with TASS on February 20, Sleptsova stated that she had never took banned performance enhancing drugs throughout her sports career saying in particular "I am accused of taking Ostarine [also known as Enobosarm], but this substance was not discovered in the sample, which is used for pressing charges against me, and it had never been there."

Whistleblower Rodchenkov and his doping allegations

Former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov told Western media in the spring of 2016 that Russian athletes largely used performance enhancing drugs at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi with the approval of the national sports authorities.

On the whole, the ex-doping official claimed that the Russian sports authorities allegedly prepared a special doping program for national athletes in order to win most of the medals at home Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

The former chief of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory also informed WADA about the so-called list of Russian athletes, who on the eve of the 2014 Winter Olympics allegedly used a doping cocktail that he concocted himself and named after a popular Soviet-era soft drink, ‘Duchess Cocktail.’

On June 8, 2016, Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against Rodchenkov on charges of power abuse. On September 21, 2017 Moscow’s Basmanny District Court arrested him in absentia.

In November 2017, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that it would seek the extradition of Rodchenkov, who absconded to the United States in 2015. In addition, an obstruction of justice charges was filed against him. He was also put on the international wanted list.