Winter Games in Italy
Biathlete Passler has a positive doping test before the home Olympics
There is a doping case four days before the start of the Winter Olympics. The affected Italian woman comes from Antholz, the venue for the biathlon races.
The Italian biathlon team is rocked by a doping case right before the start of the Winter Olympics in their own country. Rebecca Passler from Antholz, where the Olympic ski hunter races will take place starting next Sunday, tested positive during an out-of-competition check in January. According to Italy’s anti-doping authority, traces of letrozole were found on her.
The drug can lower estrogen levels, but it is mainly used to treat cancer. As a result of the violation, Passler will be temporarily suspended and will not take part in the season highlight; there was initially no reaction from her. Passler was originally part of Italy’s five-member women’s team for the Winter Games. It is currently still being clarified whether another athlete can be nominated later.
“The federation is already examining the incident in detail and intends to support its athlete in all appropriate ways,” said President Flavio Roda of the Italian winter sports federation FISI in an initial statement: “It is essential to get to the bottom of the matter in order to dispel any doubt that could seriously affect Rebecca’s career and the reputation of the federation.”
The 24-year-old Passler has been competing in the World Cup since the end of 2021. In January she was the starting runner of the Italian women’s relay team at the competitions in Oberhof, Thuringia, which only finished tenth in the absence of stars Lisa Vittozzi and Dorothea Wierer. Her best career results are two eleventh places in the Oberhof sprint and the Annecy mass start.
Passler only made the World Cup podium with the relay
The former junior world champion has not yet made it into the top ten in the relay in an individual race. With the Italian women’s relay team, she made it to third place twice in the winter of 2022/2023 alongside Wierer and Vittozzi.
Passler is the niece of former Italian biathlete Johann Passler, who won two Olympic bronze medals in Calgary in 1988. According to Italian media, Johann Passler will also work as a logistics assistant in the Antholz stadium during the Winter Games that start on Friday.
There had been a doping case involving letrozole in Italy in the past. The drug was also found in former French Open finalist Sara Errani in 2017. The active ingredient has no longer been permitted in competitive sports since 2008 and is on the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) list of banned substances. At the time, tennis player Errani denied having taken the substance and suspected food contamination.
dpa
