Straight dope

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea—Slovenian ice hockey player Ziga Jeglic failed a drugs test and has been kicked out of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said Tuesday, becoming the third doping case to roil the Games.

The 29-year-old Jeglic had been suspended and ordered to leave the Olympic Village within 24 hours after testing positive for the banned drug fenoterol, which is used to treat breathing difficulties, CAS said in a statement.

CAS said Jeglic “accepted an antidoping rule violation and, as a consequence, the athlete is suspended from competing in the remainder of the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018.”
Jeglic is a forward who plays his club hockey in the Kontinental Hockey League for Russian side Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk.

It comes just a day after a medal-winning Russian curler who passed rigorous vetting to attend the Winter Olympics in South Korea was similarly hit by a drugs case.

Alexander Krushelnitsky got bronze in the mixed doubles curling with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova.

That case could have wider repercussions: Olympic officials will decide this week whether to lift a ban on Russia and let them march behind their national flag at the closing ceremony on Sunday.

Russia was banned as a team from the Olympics in December after investigations revealed an extensive doping plot culminating at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, where the hosts topped the medals table.

Last week, Japanese short-track speed skater Kei Saito vowed to clear his name after testing positive for a banned substance in the first doping case at the Pyeongchang Olympics. He was the first Japanese to test positive at a Winter Olympics. —AFP