Doping in figure skating
Doping in figure skating involves the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), specifically those listed and monitored by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
[4] These drugs have little to do with building bulk muscle but can potentially be used to encourage a faster recovery, or diuretics may be used for weight loss.
[5] This could lead one to focus on weight loss, maintaining a low BMI, and a host of other medical issues such as developing an eating disorder.
[4] The nature of figure skater has one focused on their weight through controlling their diets to improve performance, opposed to using PEDs which could negatively impact their career due to the cost of being caught.
[4][5] In a 1991 interview, three-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina admitted that Soviet skaters used doping substances in preparation for the competitive season, stating: "Boys in pairs and singles used drugs, but this was only in August or September.
She stated that she been taking cold medication approved by a doctor to treat bronchitis, but because she hadn't informed the ISU, was stripped of her 2000 European Championships gold medal.
[9][10] In 2008, Yuri Larionov, a pairs skater who won silver at the 2007 World Junior Championships and gold at the 2007–08 Junior Grand Prix Final with partner Vera Bazarova, was suspended for an anti-doping violation for 18 months (January 2008 to July 2009) for using furosemide, a powerful diuretic which the World Anti-Doping Agency classifies as a "masking" anabolic and steroids.
[14] Bobrova/Soloviev were not allowed to compete at the 2016 World Championships[15] However, her ban was overturned since there are was less than one microgram of meldonium and there were the uncertainties around how long it stays in the body.
Over two months after her retirement, she received a 10-year disqualification from the sport by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency for forging a medical certificate to explain a doping violation; it was later reported that Sotskova was using the banned diuretic furosemide.
[21] In 2022, ladies' singles skater Kamila Valieva was provisionally suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency due to a positive test result for trimetazidine.
Laurine Lecavelier is a single figure skater who tested positive in 2020 for cocaine at France's Master's de Patinage announced by the French Federation of Ice Sports.
[24] Thus, there is a risk of a four-year suspension depending on whether it taken in or out of competition as if it was used for recreational purposes the penalty is less severe compared with the intention of performance enhancing.
[25] According to the ISU record, Christine Chiniard is a French ice dancer who was stripped of her third place medal at the 1983 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, after failing a dope test for a weight-loss drug for prescribed medication.
In 2002 Kyoko Ina, a three-time Olympic pairs skater, was suspended for four years because she refused to take a random drug test at 10:30pm in July.
[26] There was confusion about her retirement from amateur competition as she announced she intended not to compete at the Olympics but provided no formal written notice to the USADA.
[3] There are four types of performance enhancing drugs in sport, this will include anabolic steroids, stimulants, human growth hormone and diuretics.
