Skeleton Racer Potylitsina Says Was Ready For Polygraph Exam To Prove Innocence To CAS

Russian skeleton racer Olga Potylitsina told Sputnik Friday that during the hearing of the case on her alleged use of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) she was ready to undergo a polygraph exam to prove her innocence

IZHEVSK (Russia) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 04th January, 2019) Russian skeleton racer Olga Potylitsina told Sputnik Friday that during the hearing of the case on her alleged use of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) she was ready to undergo a polygraph exam to prove her innocence.

Potylitsina was accused by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of breaching the anti-doping rules during the winter Olympics in Sochi. She got a lifelong ban on participating in the Olympic Games as well as was deprived of her medals won in Sochi. The decision was later, however, revoked by CAS.

"I said during the hearing: 'If you are not sure, let me use the polygraph to answer all the questions!' ... I do not know how my words were assessed but it seems to me that they were surprised," Potylitsina said.

The athlete pointed out that she had not even heard the name of former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, who is accused of having run the Russian doping program and then became a key informant of WADA.

Potylitsina also pointed out that she could not use any alcohol-based medicines due to intolerance of this substance.

In 2015, WADA accused Russia of multiple doping violations and suspended the Moscow laboratory of RUSADA, the Russian National Anti-Doping Agency.

The following year, Richard McLaren, the head of the WADA investigative team, presented a two-part report that alleged the existence of a state-supported doping program in Russia during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, after Rodchenkov, who fled to the United States, said that the laboratory was involved in developing and distributing banned performance-enhancing substances for the Russian athletes.

Russian officials have refuted the allegations of the state-run doping program, while admitting that Russian sports had some issues with doping abuse.