Second runner on Olympic refugee team implicated in doping during preparation for Paris Games
MONACO — The second runner on the Olympic refugee team has been implicated in doping during preparations for the Paris Games.
Dominique Rocolon-Atiol has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for trimetazidine, the athletics department's Division of Integrity announced Wednesday.
In the case that rocked the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was handed a four-year ban in January for the same banned heart drug.
The AIU announced that it had served a notice on Rokolon Atiolu, a refugee from South Sudan living and training in Kenya, about the charges he faces in an ongoing disciplinary case.
The 24-year-old 800m and 1,500m runner is one of more than 60 refugee athletes receiving funding from the International Olympic Committee ahead of the Paris Games, which open on July 26th.
In December, another refugee team member, 3,000m steeplechase Fuad Idbakhdir, was suspended for three years after testing positive for the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO. .
Locolon Atiolu's athlete biography on the IOC website states that he became an “orphaned refugee at the age of 11.” He moved from South Sudan to Kakuma Refugee Camp, where he now trains at a camp named after marathon great Tegla Loroupe.
Lolupe, a three-time Olympian and winner of the 1994 and 1995 New York Marathon, made his debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games with the 10-athlete Olympic Refugee Team. 29 athletes participated in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
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