FINA suspends 2 Russian swimmers from Olympics for anti-doping violations

Two Russian swimmers set to compete at the Tokyo Olympics were provisionally suspended for anti-doping violations by world governing body FINA.

Alexandr Kudashev and Veronika Popova Andrusenko were suspended on Wednesday based on evidence supplied by the World Anti-Doping Agency, according to FINA.

It said the evidence came from WADA's examination of materials recovered from the former Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, including the lab's management information system.

Kudashev and Andrusenko were set to compete for the non-federation Russians. The Russian federation is barred from competing as a country in Tokyo because of ongoing doping issues found by WADA.

Andrusenko competed for Russia in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in several events. The 30-year-old swimmer also competed in the International Swimming League in 2019.

Kudashev would have been competing in his first Olympics. The 25-year-old swimmer was a gold medalist at the 2019 World University Games.

"FINA is grateful to WADA for its diligence in helping to ensure clean competition at Tokyo 2020," new FINA president Husain Al-Musallam said in a statement.

"FINA remains fully committed to protecting clean athletes and promoting clean competition at Tokyo 2020."

FINA's out of competition testing and test distribution planning are handled by the International Testing Agency, which also handles the Tokyo 2020 anti-doping program on behalf of the IOC.