The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) is seeking a four-year and three months ban for Carolina Kostner, a 2012 figure skating world champion, for violating anti-doping rules. Public prosecutors claim Kostner admitted that she had lied to testers from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about the whereabouts of her boyfriend, Olympic race-walking champion Alex Schwazer, so that he could avoid being tested. Schwazer tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) ahead of the London 2012 Olympics, sparking an investigation into suspected organised doping by the Public Prosecutor of Bolzano.

CONI said that its Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office has referred Kostner to the Second Chamber of the National Anti-Doping Tribunal of CONI for sanctioning under Article 2.8 and 3.3 of its Anti-Doping Sports Rules (NSA). Article 2.8 prohibits athletes from ‘encouraging or helping, instigating, concealing or providing any other type of complicity with respect to any violation, or attempted violation, of the NSA’. Article 3.3 allows CONI to sanction athletes for ‘non-cooperation on the part of any person regarding compliance with the NSA, including failure to report the circumstances relevant to the assessment of the facts of doping’.

CONI said that it sought its ban ‘on the basis of the documents sent by the Public Prosecutor of Bolzano, within the inquiry called “Olimpia” and following the outcome of the investigations carried out by the Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office’. This has also led its Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office to seek bans for three of the four Italian sprinters that took silver at the 4x100m relay at the 2010 European Athletics Championships.

These bans constitute two-years and three months ban for Simone Collio, as the Bolzano Public Prosecutor’s information led CONI’s Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office to believe that the sprinter has violated Article 2.5 and 3.2 of the NSA. Article 2.5 involves ‘Tampering or attempting to tamper with respect to any stage of doping controls’, and Article 3.2 prohibits athletes from ‘making, using or encouraging in any way advice or provision of subjects inhibited and / or disqualified for doping made in violation of the World Anti-Doping Code, and / or these NSA, as amended over time, and / or any other anti-doping rules adopted at the international level’.

It has also sought a two-year disqualification for Maurizio Checcucci, for violating Article 2.5 of the NSA; and an eight-month ban for Roberto Donati, for violating Article 3.2 of the NSA. All the cases have been referred to the Second Chamber of the National Anti-Doping Tribunal of CONI – a date for hearings has yet to be set.

Schwazer faced a CONI hearing on 20 November to appeal a three and a half year ban imposed by CONI in April 2013 – the outcome of that hearing is unknown. Interestingly, Schwazer’s ban is nine months shorter than that proposed for Kostner. He told media that he had lied to Kostner about EPO stored in a fridge, telling her it was vitamin B12. After failing an out-of-competition test ahead of London 2012, Schwazer was removed from Italy’s team and quit race-walking.