MOSCOW — A beer with your urine sample? No longer in Russian sports.
Citing "aggressive" athletes and interference with drug-testing results, Russia has barred sportspeople from drinking alcohol when they're tested for banned substances.
A post-race beer might help a dehydrated athlete produce a urine sample, but now they'll have to stick to "large quantities of water" provided by the drug-testers, the Russian anti-doping agency's deputy CEO, Margarita Pakhnotskaya, said.
She told The Associated Press that drinking was a particular problem with track and field athletes.
"It is not very good for athletes'
The Russian agency even found beer could interfere with the results of the "biological passport" program checking athletes for signs of drug use. "Beer influenced it a lot. It could cause or hide some changes," Pakhnotskaya said, adding there's no evidence athletes were deliberately trying to manipulate the tests.
Athletes won't get a doping ban over a single brew.
Anyone turning up with a brew will be given a "strict" warning to put it away, said Pakhnotskaya, and if they ignore that they'll be referred to their sport's governing body.
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The Associated Press
