The skater Laura Barquero tests positive in a doping control

The Spanish skater Laura Barquero, who was a finalist in the recent Winter Games in Beijing 2022 forming a couple with Marco Zandron, has tested positive in a doping control during the Olympic competition and her case is pending the counter-analysis that the athlete has the right to request The International Testing Agency (ITA) announced this Tuesday.

"The ITA informs that the sample taken from the Spanish skater Laura Barquero Jiménez has given an adverse analytical result for the prohibited substance Clostebol, in accordance with the Prohibited List of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)", announces the ITA statement.

The sample was deposited by the Spanish skater in a competition control on February 18, after the short program of the pairs modality, and the result of the analysis communicated three days later by the Beijing laboratory, approved by the WADA.

"The athlete has been informed of the case and has the right to request the analysis of the B sample," adds the ITA, which announced that it will now transfer the case to the anti-doping division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (RAS ADD) "for adjudication under the anti-doping regulations applicable to the Beijing 2022 Games″,

Barquero and Zandron finished eleventh in Beijing 2022 on the 19th, after becoming the first Spanish duo to qualify for the Games in the pairs figure skating event and reach the final.

The Spanish couple secured their classification for Beijing on September 24 with second place in the Nebelhorn Trophy, played in the German town of Oberstdorf, a place that was not nominal although the Spanish Federation of Ice Sports (RFEDH) confirmed that same day that they would be the ones who would attend the Games.

The Nebelhorn Trophy was only the second international competition for the couple made up of the Madrid native and the skater of Italian origin, after the good feelings left two weeks earlier at the Lombardy Trophy with another second place.

Laura Barquero, 20, and Marcon Zandron, 23, began training together in December 2020 with the Beijing Games in mind and he, Italian by birth, obtained Spanish nationalization on December 29.

Barquero's case comes after the great controversy with Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva.

Spain has not had a doping case at the Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City 2002, where skier Johann Mühlegg tested positive after winning three gold medals.

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