Ms Victoriya Tereshchuk is an Ukrainian Athlete competing in the Women’s individual modern pentathlon event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
In 2016, the IOC decided to perform further analyses on certain samples collected during the 2008 Olympic Games. These additional analyses were performed with analytical methods which were not available in 2008.
In July 2016 the International Olympic Committee reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Athlete after her 2008 sample tested positive for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol). After notification the Athlete submitted that she did not accept the test results. She filed a statement with evidence in her defence and was heard for the IOC Disciplinary Commission.
The Athlete challenged the validity of the analytical results; she contended that the presence of a Prohibited Substance in her bodily sample may be a result of a contaminated product unintentionally ingested; and she requested dna analyses of her samples conducted in an independent laboratory.
The Disciplinary Commission holds that DNA analysis is not part of the regular process and at no time and place were the samples stored or handled in any context in which a manipulation of the kind, which occurred in Sochi, would be, even remotely, plausible. The Commission finds that none of the Athlete’s arguments is putting in question the validity of the analysis results of the Athlete’s sample and of the corresponding finding consisting in the establishment of an anti-doping rule violation.
The Disciplinary Commission notes that athletes have long been warned against the use of supplements. As such, the fact that turinabol may have been ingested as part of a supplement is not likely to constitute an element exonerating the Athlete from having been at fault for using a Prohibited Substance. In this respect, the Disciplinary Commission observes that supplements do not, as a rule, contain turinabol and that accidental contamination of a legitimate supplement by this substance appears to be very unlikely.
With the positive test results the Commission concludes that the Athlete has committed an anti-doping rule violation consistent with the intentional use of a prohibited substances specifically ingested to deliberately improve performance. The fact that the metabolites of a doping substance, which is a traditional doping substance, was found, supports this consideration.
The Disciplinary Commission, which has now handled multiple cases arising out of the reanalysis of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, observes that the presence of metabolites of this particular substance has been established in a remarkably high number of cases, which resulted from the re-analysis of the samples collected in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. This constitutes an indication that said substance has been in widespread use by athletes, who were doping at that time.
Therefore the IOC Disciplinary Commission decides on 27 February 2017 that the Athlete, Victoriya Tereshchuk:
1.) is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008 (presence and/or use, of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete’s bodily specimen),
2.) is disqualified from the events in which she participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, namely, the Women’s individual modern pentathlon event in which she ranked 3rd and for which she was awarded a bronze medal, and
3.) has the bronze medal, the diploma and the medallist pin obtained in the Women’s individual modern pentathlon event withdrawn and is ordered to return same.
4.) The UIPM 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 Ukraine shall ensure full implementation of this decision.
6.) The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the bronze medal, the diploma and the medallist pin awarded in connection with the Women’s individual modern pentathlon even to the Athlete.
7.) This decision enters into force immediately.
