Russian hammer thrower Sergei Litvinov admits to doping in 2012

Former Russian hammer thrower Sergei Litvinov has admitted utilizing banned substances and benefiting from his nation’s cover-up system as athletics authorities handed him a two-year suspension and voided his previous outcomes.

“I took doping in 2012 and took profit from the cover-up system in Russia,” Litvinov, who now not competes, wrote in a Facebook put up on Thursday, a uncommon occasion of an athlete admitting such an offence.

Litvinov, who missed the reduce for Russia’s 2012 Olympic crew, admitted to taking the anabolic steroids Oral-Turinabol and Oxandrolon between the tip of April and the tip of May of that yr. He had beforehand mentioned that he had by no means taken any banned substances.

Esto no lo había visto antes. Sergei Litvinov, lanzador de martillo ruso, admite haberse dopado en 2012 beneficiándose del encubrimiento del sistema ruso. Reconoce que el doping lo hizo mejorar pero que esto “no es deporte”. Pide disculpas por sus actos. pic.twitter.com/Pi1TWnKMwg

— Fernando Palomo ESPN (@fernandopalomo) January 12, 2023

Russia’s athletics federation was suspended in 2015 over a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that discovered proof of mass doping within the sport.

A handful of Russian athletes have been later cleared to compete at worldwide occasions, together with the Tokyo Olympics, however World Athletics, the game’s governing physique, subsequently banned Russians and Belarusians over the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian sports activities officers have acknowledged shortcomings within the nation’s anti-doping system however have denied the existence of a state-sponsored scheme to cover-up optimistic doping checks. Litvinov, the son of Soviet hammer thrower Sergei Litvinov, the 1988 Olympic champion, mentioned his throws improved by practically two metres after taking the substances.

“The hammer was going further without a good feeling, or a good technique,” mentioned Litvinov, who now lives in Germany.

Litvinov mentioned he handed over the small print of his case to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which oversees integrity points in worldwide athletics, together with doping. The AIU mentioned on Thursday that it had handed him a two-year ban and voided his outcomes between July 2012 and Feb. 2016, successfully stripping him of his bronze medal from the 2014 European championships.

“I had pressure from the federation at the time, but at the end this was my decision and my fault,” he wrote, referring to Russia’s suspended athletics federation. “I want to say sorry to the athletics community.”

The Russian athletics federation issued an announcement on the suspension however didn’t handle Litvinov’s allegation that it had pressured him to make use of banned substances.