Winter Olympics 2018 Russian curler fails Winter Olympics drug test • OAR confirm ‘possible violation of anti-doping rules’• IOC banned Russia from Pyeongchang over doping at Sochi A general view of the Gangneung curling centre in South Korea. Photograph: Felipe Dana/APA Russian athlete who won bronze in the mixed curling at the Winter Olympics has failed a preliminary drug test, putting his medal into jeopardy and throwing the spotlight on the decision to welcome 168 Russian athletes to Pyeongchang after the country was nominally banned for state-sponsored doping in Sochi four years ago. It was commonly used by Russian athletes before that, including Maria Sharapova, who was banned for 15 months after she failed a test at the Australian Open in January 2016. The violation meant Team GB’s final stone was removed from play leaving Sweden to clinch victory – and Muirhead bemused. We did get the stone tested and the stone is fine so there is nothing we can do.

Source: The Guardian February 18, 2018 12:47 UTC