Olga Pyleva

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Women's Biathlon
Olympic medal record
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	10 km pursuit
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	4 x 7.5 km relay
Disqualified	2006 Turin	15 km individual

Olga Pyleva (Russian: Ольга Валерьевна Пылёва, born July 7, 1975 in Krasnoyarsk) is a Russian biathlete.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics she won an individual gold medal in the 10 km pursuit, as well as the bronze medal in the team relay.

Pyleva also won twice at the Holmenkollen ski festival biathlon competition during the 2004/05 season in the sprint and pursuit events.

[edit] Doping offense and disqualification in 2006

At the 2006 Winter Olympics she won the silver in the women's 15 km individual race, but on February 16, 2006, she was disqualified from further competition for failing a drug test [1] when she tested positive for the stimulant carphedon. The International Olympic Committee panel found her guilty, and she was expelled from the games and stripped of her medal. She was then banned for two years from competition, and the authorities in Turin started a criminal investigation into the matter [2]. The head of the Russian Anti-Doping Committee said that Pyleva took an over-the-counter medication for an ankle injury prescribed by her personal doctor who is not a team doctor, which contained carphedon [3]. It was the first and only time when Pyleva was injured and took any healing medication while training for a major competition. According to its label, the medication is not forbidden and is officially recommended by its manufacturer for treating sporting related injuries. But the Russian manufacturer did not include the complete compound list for the medication, which is what allegedly led to this catastrophic mistake [4]. The manufacturer has been officially warned by the Russian government, while the doctor in question has been banned for two years as well, and has said that she in turn is planning to sue the drug manufacturer [5]. Several days after the incident, the IBU president Anders Besseberg said in an interview that "Pyleva may and must defend her good name in law proceeding against the plant", but ruled out any reduction of the two year disqualification from competition [6].