Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was suspended Thursday for failing a doping test, becoming the first athlete to test positive at the Turin Games. Pyleva, who won silver at the 15km event Monday, was scratched from the field just before the start of the 7.5km sprint, in which she was considered a leading medal contender.

She also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

"The IOC has provisionally suspended the athlete for a disciplinary issue," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Thursday.

An IOC panel will be convened to hear Pyleva's case. If found guilty, she would be thrown out of the games.

Pyleva won silver in the 15km event Monday ahead of Germany's Martina Glagow. Albina Akhatova, Pyleva's Russian teammate, was fourth.

The IOC has conducted 380 tests since the athletes' village opened Jan. 31; Pyleva is the first to be caught by the IOC's most rigorous doping control program ever at a Winter Olympics. A total of 1,200 samples are being tested, a 72 percent increase over the number in Salt Lake City, where there were seven doping cases total.

A Brazilian bobsledder who tested positive for steroids in a pre-Olympic drug test was the first athlete sent home from the Turin Games for doping. Armando dos Santos, a former hammer thrower, failed the test in early January when a sample showed evidence of the steroid nandrolone.

A dozen cross-country skiers were suspended five days for elevated hemoglobin, considered health checks — though they can also indicate possible blood doping. Seven of those have since been retested and cleared to compete; one failed a retest, and the other four had not yet been cleared.

(AP via China Daily February 17, 2006)