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Swimmer cites mom’s blood for doping ban

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Argentine swimmer Guillermo Bertola has been banned for four years and stripped of his 2019 Pan American Games silver medal in a doping case in which he said he received a transfusion of his mother’s blood.

The governing body of swimming said Thursday the case against the 30-year-old open-water swimmer was based on irregular blood readings in his biological passport.

When Bertola was contacted for the investigation, he blamed altitude training and the “use of a snorkel and mask with hypoxic effect,” FINA said.

He later acknowledged getting a blood transfusion in January 2018 while sick with gastrointestinal problems.