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US-based Grigory Tarasevich, Russia’s Top Backstroker, Positive for Meldonium
- Updated: July 23, 2016
As if things could not have got any worse for Russia, backstroker Grigory Tarasevich, the European 100m silver medallist in London in May this year, who competes for the University of Louisville and trains in the United States, tested positive for meldonium on two separate occasions earlier this year, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has revealed.
Tarasevich, 20 this year, tested positive for the substance in a March 4 urine sample provided during the USA Swimming Pro Series stop in Orlando, and also tested positive in an out-of-competition test on March 29.
The timing is not dissimilar to the timing of the five positive tests retired by World 100m breaststroke champion Yuliya Efimova*, also U.S-based. Efimova was given the all-clear to race in Rio providing Russian gets to compete at all, the IOC’s decision pending, given that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will only deliberate on the status of some meldonium positives beyond research findings later in the year.
Tarasevich’s evidence is damning for Russia. He told USADA during its investigation that he was prescribed meldonium by a Russian physician in June 2015. By then it was already known in elite sports and anti-doping circles that meldonium was headed for the banned list. A September 2015 statement from WADA to all signatories of the WADA Code made clear that that was the case and that the substance would be officially added to the list of banned substances from January 1, 2016.
Tarasevich said that he stopped taking the substance when it became banned on January 1. However, the drug did not completely clear Tarasevich’s system for the tests he submitted, and therefore violated anti-doping regulations.
Because the amounts of meldonium found in Tarasevich’s samples were small and due to the findings of the USADA investigation, Tarasevich will be able to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, provided a blanket ban is not imposed on Russian athletes by the International Olympic Committee.
Arkady Vyatchanin, by Patrick B. Kraemer
Tarasevich’s status, nevertheless, deals a blow on three levels:
Tarasevich, 20 this year, is part of the new face of clean …
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