Two Russian cross-country skiers have been banned from attending any future Olympics over doping at the 2014 winter games in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on November 1 that Aleksandr Legkov, who won an individual gold medal and relay silver, was also disqualified from all his events in Sochi.
Fellow countryman Yevgeny Belov, who did not win a medal, was also disqualified.
Legkov and Belov are the first athletes to be sanctioned for anti-doping rule violations in Sochi without positive doping samples, but instead on evidence initially gathered by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren.
McLaren said there was a state-backed doping program at the Sochi Olympics, and that tainted urine samples were swapped for clean ones at the lab.