Anna Orlovskaya, the Russian national freestyle ski champion, has been banned for 2 years after the athlete was caught taking drugs.
It has not yet been officially announced what exact dugs the 18-year-old athlete was taking but a statement said there was “a breach of anti-doping rules”. Orlovskaya had been hoping to compete in slopestyle and half-pipe at Sochi.
32 Russian athletes have been tested positive for banned substances in the past year and Olympic officials are determined to take a hard line at the upcoming games carrying out more than the 2,149 tests made at Vancouver in 2010.