Paris: Romanian athlete Florentina Iusco has been barred from competing at the Paris Olympics following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that partially upheld a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appeal. The decision stems from Iusco’s positive test for a banned substance in April 2023.
The 28-year-old, who specializes in the long jump and triple jump, tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic listed on WADA’s prohibited substances. Both her A and B samples confirmed the presence of the substance, resulting in an anti-doping rule violation.
Initially, Romania’s National Anti-Doping Organisation imposed only a reprimand on February 1, citing that Iusco was not at fault or negligent. However, WADA challenged this decision, leading to the CAS review.
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CAS found that Iusco had not met the required standard of care for a finding of “no significant fault or negligence.” Consequently, the court imposed a two-year ban on Iusco, retroactive to February 1, and disqualified all of her results from April 23, 2023.
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WADA had initially requested that the ban commence from the date of CAS’s decision, but the final ruling backdated the sanction. The athletics events at the Paris Olympics are set to commence on August 1.
