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Winter Olympics doping scandals through the years

The Winter Olympics has had its fair share of scandals.

From individual Olympians barred from competing, to more than a thousand athletes implicated in doping investigations, the Winter Olympics has had its fair share of scandals.

1998 Nagano, Japan

The first-ever gold medal in Olympic snowboarding goes to Canada’s Ross Rebagliati, but just a few days later it’s taken away. The culprit — marijuana, which at the time isn’t banned from the games, so Rebagliati isn’t without his gold for long. The next day, the Court of Arbitration for Sport gives it right back. Two decades later, the Canadian snowboarder is a marijuana entrepreneur and advocate.

2002 Salt Lake City, Utah

After past Winter Games controversy with his native Germany, cross-country skier, Johann Muhlegg, wins three gold medals racing for Spain, but he’s forced to part ways with his prizes after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

2014 Sochi, Russia

Swedish hockey star, Nicklas Backstrom, tests positive for pseudoephedrine. His team doctor says it’s the Zyrtec-D the athlete takes daily to treat his sinuses and doping control officials know about it. Just hours before the face-off for gold against Canada, Backstrom is pulled out of the game. He got a medal, but it was silver.

2018 Pyeongchang, South Korea

The biggest Winter Olympics doping scandal comes now with the International Olympic Committee (IOIC) banning the entire Russian Federation from competing. A report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), states more than 1,000 athletes across at least 30 sports benefited from a state-sponsored doping program between 2011 and 2015. DNA evidence like dirty female urine swapped for clean male samples is just one of the extreme cases coming out of the investigation. The IOC allows individual Russian athletes to compete as neutrals "under strict conditions" at the Pyeongchang games, with uniforms bearing the name "Olympic Athlete from Russia."

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