MOSCOW, December 9 (R-Sport) – One of Russia’s most talented freestyle skiers has been banned for two years for breaking anti-doping rules, officials said Monday, with less than two months to go until the Winter Olympics.
Anna Orlovskaya, 18, was last year’s national champion in slopestyle and ski halfpipe, two events making their Olympic debut in Russia’s Black Sea city of Sochi in February.
She had also finished ninth in a World Cup slopestyle event in March and 13th in the same discipline at the world junior championships later that month.
In a statement announcing the ban, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency did not specify the nature of Orlovskaya’s offense, only that it was “a breach of anti-doping rules.”
Orlovskaya’s ban is dated from November 19, 2013.
The 2013-2014 freestyle season began with two events in New Zealand in August, in which Orlovskaya did not compete, and started in full Friday with a slopestyle event in Canada, again without Orlovskaya.
