Russian Olga Zabelinskaya claims silver in time trial despite previous doping offence
THE Olympic time trial has been engulfed in controversy after Russian cyclist Olga Zabelinskaya won a silver medal despite breaching the IOC’s initial criteria to compete in Rio.
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THE doping cloud hanging over the Rio Olympics moved to the cycling time trial with Russian cyclist Olga Zabelinskaya defying an International Olympic Committee order to stay away and instead winning a silver medal.
Last week Zabelinskaya — a dual bronze medallist from 2012 in London — was on her way to the airport in Rio preparing to fly back to Russia after learning of the IOC’s decision to ban anyone with a doping history from competing in the Games.
Zabelinskaya tested positive to octopamine in 2014 and earlier this year accepted a retrospective 18-month ban.
Cycling’s governing body the Union Cycliste International (UCI) referred her case to the IOC but she was among a group of Russian athletes cleared to compete at the last minute.
In coastal Pontal yesterday, Zabelinskaya was just five seconds off winning a gold medal as American Kristin Armstrong won her third straight Olympic time trial title a day before her 43rd birthday.
The doping storm that began in the pool this week as swimmers took aim at China’s Sun Yang and Russian Yulia Efimova yesterday also extended to athletics with Germany’s outspoken discus champion Robert Harting criticising superstar Usain Bolt for not speaking out more in the fight to clean up athletics.
But it was front and centre at the cycling where after the race Zabelinskaya pleaded her innocence and argued for her right to be in Rio, saying she had never doped and had tested positive while breastfeeding her third child.
She said she didn’t fight the ban because she didn’t have time and in February accepted her penalty.
Before the Games, British cyclist Emma Pooley said she would not shake Zabelinskaya’s hand should she win a medal in Rio, but yesterday the Russian cyclist said she didn’t care.
“She never shakes my hand, I don’t care if somebody wants to shake (or not),” she said.
Asked if she had ever doped, Zabelinskaya told the media: “No, I never in my life.
“I am clean for myself, for my kids, for everything, when I got this problem with doping, I had my third child and I breastfed in this time.
“I couldn’t take any medicine in this time because I was breastfeeding. Any mother knows if you breastfeed you can’t take anything.
“Then I got this ... I can’t believe that it is possible.”
Australian cyclist Katrin Garfoot finished ninth in the race and said she had “no judgment whatsoever” on Zabelinskaya, but said she believed in karma.
“I think in sport karma is a good thing, not everything can be controlled so I hope that a bigger force does that for everyone,” Garfoot said.
“I haven’t followed the Russian stuff too greatly, I haven’t followed much of the doping stuff, I think we have got this body to take care of it so why should I have to think about that?”
Armstrong said she was not bothered by who her competition was and she congratulated Zabelinskaya after the race.
“I’m one person who doesn’t make judgment so when I show up to the start line, if this is (the) official start list, this is who I am racing against,” Armstrong said.
Bolt will attempt to win the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay titles for a third straight Games when track-and-field competition begins tonight.
His impending retirement will be another blow to a sport suffering the fallout from a Russian state-sponsored doping scandal and corruption allegations against the former leadership of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Harting had hard words last month for IOC president Thomas Bach, who he branded “part of the doping system”, over the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision not to blanket ban Russian sportsmen and women in Rio.
And the German also took aim at Bolt for not leading the fight yesterday.
“I would ask him why he does not go on the offensive, in any way, on the subject of doping,” Harting told magazine Sport Bild.
“The best known athlete in the world must join the current discussions and fight for a clean sport, especially since a lot of sprinters have tested positive and he has also been accused on a massive scale.
“The fact he stays out of it, gives a lot of food for thought.”
Speaking in Rio this week, Bolt said he believed his sport had turned the corner in the fight to cleanse itself.
“We’re weeding out the bad ones. I personally think we’re on the right track,” he said.
Originally published as Russian Olga Zabelinskaya claims silver in time trial despite previous doping offence
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