Controversy surrounding a drugs test reportedly taken in December, that has only come to light during the Winter Olympics in Beijing, continues to delay the medal ceremony of the figure skating team event, which was won by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
But what is trimetazidine, the banned substance at the heart of the controversy?
According to the European Union’s medicines agency (EMA), trimetazidine “is a medicine used to prevent angina attacks, which are sudden pains to the chest, jaw and back brought on by physical effort, due to reduced blood flow to the heart.”
It is listed in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) 2021 prohibited substances under the category of “hormone and metabolic modulators,” a class of drugs that have been banned by WADA due to evidence of athletes using them for performance enhancement.
“This is an interesting choice to be used in this way because I think a lot of times, people might think: to enhance your performance, you’d use a stimulant or something that would increase your heart rate or get your metabolism going,” Dr. Elizabeth Murray, pediatric emergency medicine physician at the University of Rochester Medical Center, told CNN on Thursday.
“But what this drug does is actually make your heart work more efficiently. It doesn’t change your blood pressure very much or change your heart rate,” Murray said.
“An athlete wouldn’t get jittery or necessarily feel all that different, but they would theoretically be able to perform at a higher level for longer. It would increase their endurance, potentially.”
It’s been used by athletes before: The most famous case of doping involving trimetazidine is Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, who was handed a three-month suspension in 2014 after testing positive for the drug.
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