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It's a terrible mistake, says Pyleva

Posted on: Friday, 17 February 2006, 12:42 CST

By Elizabeth Piper

TURIN (Reuters) - Russian Olga Pyleva learned on Friday she must face Italian magistrates after the judicial system swung into action following her positive doping test for a banned stimulant at the Turin Winter Olympics.

Pyleva, the first Olympian here to be thrown out for a doping violation from pre-Games testing, was given a two-year ban by the International Biathlon Union on Friday but said it was her last competition in any case.

Pyleva, who had won silver in Monday's 15-km individual biathlon, was stunned to hear she was being called in for questioning by Italian magistrates, which judicial sources confirmed to Reuters on Friday.

"What? There is a case against me?" Pyleva, visibly shocked, asked reporters, adding she did not want to end her career this way.

CAUGHT DOPING

Under Italian law, athletes are liable for conviction if caught doping through an accord between the International Olympic Association and Italian government accord before the Games agreed that nobody convicted could be directly jailed.

The worst-case scenario would be a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Asked whether she thought she would be convicted, Pyleva said: "I hope not. I really hope it won't happen."

The mother of a nine-year-old son from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia has been stripped of her medal and had her accreditation taken away.

The official Olympic news service had reported that she would be flying home to Russia on Friday but Pyleva said she would be remaining in Turin for the time being.

"I don't know what I am going to do," she told Reuters and reporters from Russian and Norwegian television companies.

"I want to say that I have never intentionally used any banned substances. It is a huge and horrible mistake," she told reporters after testifying at the hearing but before the ban was announced.

"I hope they believe me. I have always been open. I have spoken only the truth," she said. "The worst thing for me is having a doping scandal, I just never thought it would happen to me."

RIGHT MEDICINE

She has said she took the drug for an injury.

Her private doctor, Nina Vinogradova, blamed the Russian pharmaceutical company saying she had prescribed the right medicine which was approved by the drug's manufacturer.

"It's a new medicine but it had all the necessary certificates," Vinogradova told a news conference in Krasnoyarsk.

But Russia's biathlon chief shifted the blame on the doctor.

"She (Pyleva) never told us that she took some medicine which was prescribed by her private doctor," Alexander Tikhonov said in televised comments. "The doctor just made a mistake in prescribing the wrong medicine."

A gold medallist in the 10-km pursuit at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Pyleva tested positive for carphedon, a prohibited stimulant, on February 13 after the women's 15-km individual biathlon.

Russian media on Friday pointed a finger at Leonid Tyagachyov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee.

The Sovietsky Sport newspaper said Tyagachyov had publicly promised no repeat of a huge doping scandal that rocked Russia at the Salt Lake City Olympics four years ago.

"Yesterday's Olga Pyleva drama proved that Russian sports officials are simply not capable of learning lessons from previous doping scandals. And from their mistakes as well," it said.

Source: REUTERS

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