In March Russia’s Yuliya Efimova tested positive for meldonium. She quickly claimed innocence, stating she stopped taking the substance before the banned date. She is now demanding an investigation of a lab in Salt Lake City, that was the site of inconsistent results, according to statements in Russian media.
She was tested five times from February 15 to March 5. Four of those tests (analyzed in Los Angeles and Montreal) returned positive, but one from Salt Lake City was negative. The 2012 Olympic medalist was suspended on March 14.
In an April 2 email, the lab confirmed (translated from Russian): “was indeed carried out screening tests on meldonium 1,582,651. We conducted the necessary positive and negative test provided in this case. The sample is negative on meldonium.”
When Efimova appealed her suspension, the ruling was upheld. The FINA doping panel cited the one surprisingly negative test as influencing that decision.
As a result, Efimova was still suspended and unable to compete in the 2016 Russian Nationals. She explains how that ruling, and the consequent impacts have negatively influenced her preparations for the Rio Olympics,
“In addition, due to the stress suffered by me in connection with the refusal to withdraw the temporary suspension, I suffered a severe disease (purulent tonsillitis), after which it took me almost a month to recover. And my coach (David Salo) has informed me that our relationship coach and athlete should be discontinued. And it endangers the whole process of preparation for the upcoming Olympics.”
Her suspension was lifted on May 22. It is believe that without that negative test, Efimova would have won her appeal.
On her request for an investigation, Efimova said
“Such negligence committed by the laboratory in Salt Lake City, not only violated the provisions of ISL 2015, but caused irreparable harm to me, because of a false negative result of the laboratory, my temporary suspension was not lifted in time and I lost the chance to qualify for the Olympic games at the national championship. This means that it is not just a “false-negative”, it should be seen as a “false-positive” when assessing the compliance of the laboratory in Salt Lake City Status ISL 2015 .”
On Tuesday Efimova was officially listed on Russia’s Olympic roster, despite having missed the April Olympic Trials.