MOSCOW (AP) — Russian race walker Anisya Kirdyapkina, a two-time world championship medalist, has been banned for using performance-enhancing drugs, further dismantling one of the most successful doping programs in history.
Kirdyapkina was the only athlete from Russia’s nine-person Olympic walk team in 2012 never to have served a ban despite multiple investigations into organized doping involving her coach, her teammates and her gold medal-winning husband, Sergei.
The Russian track federation said Thursday that Kirdyapkina was banned for three years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after her blood data showed signs of doping. She will have to cease her coaching career and is disqualified from second-place finishes from the 2011 and 2013 world championships.