Third Winter Olympian Tests Positive For Drugs

The number of athletes to have failed drug tests at the Winter Olympics has risen to three after Ukrainian bobsledder Lidiia Hunko tested positive for a prohibited substance.

Hunko was tested 'during an in-competition anti-doping control' on Monday, February 14, the same day she competed in the Olympics' inaugural monobob event.

She came in 20th place in women's monobob before her test result was revealed yesterday, February 17, when it returned positive for an anabolic steroid.

Hunko has been informed of the result, according to a statement from the International Testing Agency, and received a provisional suspension 'until the resolution of the matter in line with the World Anti-Doping Code and the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022'.

The suspension prevents the 28-year-old from competing, training, coaching, or participating 'in any activity' during the ongoing winter games, though Hunko does have the right to challenge the suspension before the court of Arbitration for Sport – Anti-Doping Division.

She also has the right to request the analysis of the B-sample – the other half of her sample used in the test.

Hunko's result marks the third case of steroid detection at the Beijing Olympics after cross-country skier Valnetyna Kaminska, who is also from Ukraine, and alpine skier Hossein Saveh-Shemshaki.

Saveh-Shemshaki was provisionally suspended after an out-of-competition test returned an 'adverse analytical finding' for an anabolic steroid last week, while 34-year-old Kaminska tested positive for an anabolic steroid and two other banned substances earlier this week.

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has also been at the centre of doping controversy after she was found to have tested positive for the banned angina drug trimetazidine, though the test that returned her positive result was taken in December, prior to the beginning of the Winter Games.

Valieva was cleared to compete in the women's figure skating event yesterday, February 17, coming in fourth place after she stumbled during her free skate.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, said the pressure faced by Valieva is 'beyond [his] imagination' as he commented: 'To see her there struggling on the ice, seeing her how she tried to compose herself again, how then she tries to finish her program, and you could in every movement, in the body language, you could feel that this is immense mental stress and that, maybe, she would have preferred just to leave the ice and try to leave this story behind her.'

When it comes to Hunko, the ITA has explained there will be no further comments while the case is underway.

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