The doping woes for the Russian Federation continue on Thursday, as RUSADA, the country’s anti-doping organization, has announced another temporary suspension for a positive doping test.
Olga Klyuchnikova tested positive at the Russian Championships on May 16th in Moscow in her “A” sample, and has been barred from competition and training with a team while her case is decided. RUSADA did not announce the specific substance for which she tested positive.
The 25-year old Klyuchnikova qualified for the finals of that meet in both the 50 backstroke, where she was 4th in 29.17 (a lifetime best for her), and the 100 back, where she was 8th in 1:03.00. On the 16th, the day of her positive test, she raced the 100 back semi-final.
Klyuchnikova is the second publicized Russian currently on temporary suspension (after Yulia Efimova just came off of it when learning of her permanent fate). There has still not been an announced resolution to the temporary of suspension given to Sergey Makov by FINA in January, nor of that given to Vitaly Melnikov in March.
Klyuchnikova’s fate is not yet determined, but with another positive test, Russian swimming’s numbers of doping cases over the last two years continue to climb. There were no-fewer-than 8 positive tests for Russian swimmers in 2013.
As others have mentioned, in track & field, the Russians are second only to the Turks and ahead of even the Americans when it comes to having a reputation for serious doping in that sport. My hypothesis is that the Russian swimmers are getting the drugs not from their federation, which seems to have a history of being reasonably clean, but from sports medicine professionals offering to ‘help’ swimmers like they’ve helped Russian distance runners.
Didn’t one of the Daria Ustinovas get a suspended sentence not just because of her young age but because someone in her circle was willing to work with the Russian swim federation to name some names?
She did… not the backstroker, but the “not so good” one..
Is Russia case something on the lines of USTF on the past? Maybe not with the federation.. but a Balco like company behind all?
I don’t want to accuse all of Russia’s swimmers because of their recent positives, but you can’t help but raise an eyebrow at all their phenomenal talent rising up. Maybe it’s just coincidence though.
The more viable a pro career is in this sport, the more we’re going to see individuals and coaches making these decisions. Still, either Russian swimmers are collectively way ahead of the curve, or there’s a very serious problem within the swimming federation that is causing all of this.
I do not mean to discriminate against a nation, but it seems like Russia fails more drug tests than all other countries combined. Is this being noticed on a higher scale? Such as Fina?
thanks for observing the same thing i was about to share here …. Russia seems to have loads of these doping cases ; and all that just within one year or so !!! Weird weird weirdo
Kazan Effect..
Russia Track and Field alone have more doping now than the whole rest of the world for sure..
The Turks have managed to be worse than the Russians in terms of doping in track & field. Right before the 2018 Olympics were awarded, 31 Turkish athletes got busted and the Games went to Tokyo as track fans were calling for the IAAF to suspend Turkey’s membership in the international federation for such a lack of institutional control.
Yet I can’t help noticing that it was their national anti-doping organization that caught her
That does not mean anything! Knowing how things work in Eastern Europe, that only means that only those who do not have connections and cannot pay someone off get caught – the rest are still swimming.
ThatSwimKid – I don’t think that it’s unnoticed. However, there’s only so much FINA can do based on the regulations of the WADC that they signed. To work outside of those boundaries, they would have to withdraw from WADA. Otherwise, they’re heavily limited in how much they can do beyond education and helping improve enforcement. I think the exception would be if they could prove that the doping was sponsored by the state or the federation, and I would put the ability to do so as less than 10%. Just as the testers got smarter after the East German problems, the dopers did too, and my guess is that there’s not much in the way of paperwork to trace anything… Read more »
I agree completely Braden, too many loopholes and not enough power to enforce. I am sure the “dopers” who do not get caught cannot accept their medals with as much pride.
I’m honestly expecting that vlad will test positive.
I would honestly be so bummed if it happens to Morozov. I’m certain this guy will get at least a silver in both his events in Rio, so I really hope he’s not caught in all this controversy.
I believe Vlad is clean, because he got very fast at a young age. You could see his success coming for a while. Maybe I am naive, but I have a hard time believing that 15-16 year olds are doping.
I’m sure the prevalence goes down markedly as the swimmers are less than 18, but it would be stupid to think that no one does it. Many under-18 Russians have been implicated in the past two years.
I want Vlad to be clean, but man he’s been dropping some serious time ever since he joined the Russian Federation. And it coincided with other Russian swimmers as well like Izotov.
To be fair with Vlad, before he joined the Russian Federation, he was on that downward trajectory nonetheless. But it really took off when he joined Russia.
He did take off..but he also did so at the same age when male swimmers across the world take off. It would be more unusual for a male swimmer at that age to NOT make a big improvement than it is to MAKE a big improvement. As with any “suspicions” prior to positive test or some other direct link to an organization like BALCO, for as many things that could be explained by doping, there are as many other non-doping explanations as well.
😆
+1
There was one more swimmger who got caught of Russian..
Vitaly Melnikov on March
Rafael – Melnikov tested positive in 2013. That sentence was referring to when they got caught, not when they got suspended. But yes, he probably should be mentioned under the list of those currently suspended as well. Will add him above.