Nikolay polukhin

Olympic Winter Games Sochi: The Independent Anti-Doping Tribunal of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has found Para cross country and Para biathlon athlete Nikolay Polukhin of Russia committed an anti-doping rule violation at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Due to the verdict after a decade, Polukhin's individual results from the event -- including one gold and two silver medals -- have been disqualified. He was found guilty of doping which had escaped detection for years because of the Russian conspiracy.

The charges arose from investigations by the IPC into the evidence provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about the state-sponsored doping programme in Russian sports between (at least) 2012 and 2015. During that time period, the Moscow and Sochi laboratories utilised a ‘Disappearing Positive Methodology’ to conceal presumptive adverse analytical findings and, at the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, swapped out ‘dirty’ urine samples for ‘clean’ urine obtained from athletes for that purpose.