Russia's Tatyana Firova suggests athletes should be able to take banned substances
By John Sparks, Sky News, Moscow Correspondent
Last Updated: 07/06/16 7:26pm
A three-time Olympic silver medallist says athletes should be able to take banned substances as "normal" people do.
Russian former 400m runner Tatyana Firova, who recently failed a drug test, suggested sportsmen and women would not be able to "achieve high results" without performance-enhancing substances.
Her country has allowed a small group of journalists, including a team from Sky News, unprecedented access to its athletes, in the hope of silencing allegations of doping currently plaguing sport in the nation.
Athletics' governing body will decide on June 17 whether Russian track and field athletes can compete at this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Speaking at the Meteor Stadium near Moscow, Firova, who won silver in the 4x400m relay at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, said doping is not just about what the athletes want to do.
She told Sky News the 'bureaucrats' must share responsibility, saying: "Of course the system is also responsible for [doping].
"We sportsmen are performers, we follow the rules that are given to us by the system."
Samples that she gave at the 2008 Beijing Games were recently re-tested and came up positive.
When we asked Firova whether she had doped as an athlete, the runner did not wish to comment.
But what she did do was offer a stark and unsentimental opinion on performance-enhancing drugs.
"A normal person can take banned substances if they want to," she said. "So why can't athletes take them as well? How else can we achieve high results?"
