Ahead of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Under-18 World Championships in Grand Forks, North Dakota, it has emerged that Russia have fired their head coach and sacked the entire team after a majority of the players had tested positive for performance-enhancing drug meldonium.
The incident has been described as a “mass doping scandal,” and has gained significance following revelations earlier this year from Russian tennis ace Maria Sharapova that she had tested positive for the drug following her Australian Open loss to Serena Williams.
The U-18 hockey team was replaced with the under-17 squad, in a decision collectively taken by the Russian International Hockey Federation and the country’s sports ministry.
In a statement, the RIHF said “..as prescribed by the doctors, players of the Viktor Tikhonov center used the Mildronate drug (meldonium) so as to protect the heart muscle in periods of high exertion.”
This is the latest in a series of hits for the country’s sporting fraternity. Russian athletics was banned by world athletics governing body IAAF last year after WADA investigations and reports found significant evidence of state-sanctioned doping, with the country’s sports ministry and officials abetting athletes and coaches.
Earlier this year, former Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) chief Nikita Kamayev was found dead in his home two months after resigning from the post, with a report from the agency saying he had “presumably” died of a heart attack. His death came weeks after that of Vyacheslav Sinev, the former general director of RUSADA from 2008 to 2010, whose cause of death was also allegedly a myocardial infarction.
According to the report, Russian officials had been helping athletes circumvent doping regulations in a number of ways; athletes were allegedly warned before surprise drug tests. Test results were also held and delayed prior to being reported, with the report saying officials accepted significant bribes from athletes to allow them to continue competing.
With the Rio Olympics set to commence on the 5th of August, it is as yet unclear whether the ban will be lifted in time for Russian athletes to participate.
