Richard Budgett, medical director for the International Olympic Committee, said meldonium was a "special issue" and it seemed that Elistratov took the drug before it was banned at the start of 2016. Russian tennis star Sharapova, a former world number one, served a 15-month ban after testing positive for meldonium in early 2016. Budgett said the Olympic Athletes from Russia had been heavily tested before the Games and remained under scrutiny in Pyeongchang, where about 2,500 doping controls were expected. "The Olympic Athletes from Russia obviously were a major focus for both the pre-Games taskforce and now at the Games," he said. "And so we can be confident that the Olympic Athletes from Russia are clean.

Source: The Nation Bangkok February 11, 2018 06:56 UTC