3-time Olympic triathlete receives 5 year ban for doping

After the news earlier this week that the International Testing Agency is investigating Ironman world champion Sam Laidlow, we almost missed some more news from the Agency about an athlete caught doping just before the Olympics in Tokyo.

Just before the Games in 2021 we reported that Ukraine’s Yulia Yelistratova, who had competed at the Olympic triathlon event in 2008, 2012 and 2016 had been banned just two days before the Games because of a positive drug test (see link below). That test had been done on June 5, 2021 at the Dnipro Europe Triathlon Cup, which she had won. It turns out that she also tested positive just days before the triathlon event was to take place in Tokyo.

Three-time Olympian from Ukraine out of Olympics after positive EPO test

The wheels of justice move slowly when it comes to doping offences, it would appear. Earlier this week World Triathlon announced that Yelistratova had been successfully prosecuted by the International Testing Agency (ITA) before the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS ADD).

“Following the Results Management process, the ITA submitted the matter for adjudication to CAS ADD,” World Triathlon reported. “A hearing took place before CAS ADD on 23 January 2023 at which the ITA represented World Triathlon.”

“After hearing the parties and considering the written submissions and evidence, CAS ADD found that the athlete had committed an ADRV under Art. 2.1 of the World Triathlon Anti-Doping Rules for the Presence of EPO in her samples,” World Triathlon’s statement continued. “CAS ADD also concluded that aggravating circumstances had been established in this case and hence the period of ineligibility imposed was 5 years, starting from 25 July 2021 until 24 July 2026 and disqualification of all competitive results from 5 June 2021 onwards.”