Olympic champion gymnast Oleg Verniaiev is acceptable to miss the Tokyo Games due to the fact that helium has been banned for 4 years pursuing a failed cause test.
The Ukrainian gymnast tested affirmative for the banned substance meldonium successful August 2020 and was banned aft a ruling by the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation, which hears disciplinary cases successful the sport.
The prohibition is backdated to tally from November 2020 and could besides regularisation him retired of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Verniaiev was besides ordered to wage astir 5,600 euros ($8,858) successful costs, the GEF said successful its connection Tuesday.
Verniaiev denies wrongdoing and said helium volition entreaty the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"The main question is however a banned substance got into my body?" helium wrote successful an Instagram station Tuesday. "Why did it hap astatine a clip erstwhile determination were nary superior planetary competitions and determination was lone airy grooming taking place?"
Verniaiev won golden connected the parallel bars astatine the Rio de Janeiro Olympics successful 2016 and was the metallic medallist successful the all-around, successful a dramatic, adjacent nonaccomplishment to Japan's Kohei Uchimura.
Since then, his competitory appearances person been constricted by injuries and the provisional suspension imposed past twelvemonth pursuing his failed test, though helium won all-around bronze astatine the past satellite championships successful 2019.
A affirmative trial for meldonium led to tennis prima Maria Sharapova serving a 15-month ban. Sharapova said she did not cognize it had been banned soon earlier her affirmative test.
Meldonium is simply a bosom medicine developed successful the then-Soviet Union and was banned successful sports from 2016.
It was besides the substance which caused Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky to beryllium stripped of a bronze medal astatine the 2018 Winter Olympics. Two Russian rowers were removed from their country's Olympic squad past week aft affirmative tests for meldonium.
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