Tokyo Olympics: FINA suspends two Russian swimmers

MOSCOW: Two Russian swimmers set to compete at the Tokyo Olympics were provisionally suspended on Wednesday for anti-doping violations by the world governing body FINA.

Alexandr Kudashev and Veronika Popova Andrusenko were suspended based on evidence supplied by the World Anti-Doping Agency, according to FINA. It said the evidence came from WADA's examination of materials recovered from the former Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, including the lab's management information system.

Kudashev and Andrusenko were set to compete for the non-federation Russians. The Russian federation is barred from competing as a country in Tokyo because of ongoing doping issues found by WADA.

Andrusenko competed for Russia in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in several events. The 30-year-old swimmer also competed in the International Swimming League in 2019.

Kudashev would have been competing in his first Olympics. The 25-year-old swimmer was a gold medalist at the 2019 World University Games. Agencies

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