The trainer of the Russian women's Olympic ice-hockey team said on Thursday that there was no truth to reports that one of the players had been found guilty of doping.
"No doping was discovered," Valentin Gureev said, just days before the start of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. "This is false information."
Defender Svetlana Tkachyova, 26, was called for a doping test following a warm-up game between Russia and Switzerland in Squamish, Canada, on February 10, which Russia won 5:4.
"We flew in late the night before, and she decided to use a nasal spray in order to sleep better. The next morning after a training session she did a doping test," he said.
"Everything has been cleared up now," he said. "They've already called us and said she is clear, that she can play."
The incident comes a month after the International Ski Federation (FIS) disqualified two Russian female skiers, Yulia Chepalova and Natalia Matveyeva, on allegations of doping use.
Before the opening of the 2008 Olympics in China, seven Russian female athletes were disqualified from the Games after they were ruled to have switched urine samples before tests for performance-enhancing drugs.
International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge expressed concern on Monday over doping cases involving Russian athletes.
"We have indeed been concerned by the number of positive cases," Rogge said, adding that he had raised the issue with President Dmitry Medvedev.
The IOC and the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will deliver a very strict doping control program, with plans to conduct over 2,000 tests during the Games.
VANCOUVER, February 11 (RIA Novosti)
