World Olympians Association Bans Lebedeva From Work in Executive Committee

The World Olympians Association (WOA) on Friday prohibited Russian triple jump and long jump champion Tatiana Lebedeva from working in the association’s Executive Committee for a life-time period, amid doping allegations against the athlete.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Russian triple jump and long jump champion Tatiana Lebedeva of silver medals from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, after banned substances were allegedly found during repeat tests of her samples from the games.

"During an urgent meeting of the WOA Executive Committee late last night, WOA found Tatyana Lebedeva guilty of a breach of the WOA Code of Conduct while she was a member of the WOA Executive Committee. As a result, she will serve the following WOA sanctions: a life-time ban from standing for election to the WOA Executive Committee," WOA said in a statement.

WOA also recommended the Russian Olympians Association to suspend Lebedeva’s membership and deprive the athlete of the ability to use the Olympian.org email address.

WOA noted that it was aware of the fact that Levedeva intends to appeal the decision on the sanctions and stressed that the restrictive measures would remain in force and would not be reviewed until the appeal process is completed.