Russian biathlon star Olga Pyleva was thrown out of the Turin Games and stripped of her silver medal Thursday for doping, the first athlete caught in the tightest drug net in Winter Olympics history.

Pyleva was favored heading into Thursday's 7.5km sprint to win her second medal of the games. As athletes were walking up to the starting line, an announcer told the crowd that Pyleva was scratched because she had fallen ill.

But it didn't take long for news of the real reason to spread. A urine sample Pyleva submitted after the 15km event on Monday tested positive for the stimulant carphedon, which she said was in an over-the-counter medication she'd taken.

An IOC panel was hastily convened to hear Pyleva's case. Less than two hours after the race went on without her, she was kicked out of the Turin Games.

"It's a shocking situation," Pyleva told Russia's state-run First Channel, "because I've always been against using banned medications."

Russian officials at the Olympics were equally quick with an explanation: A doctor who treated Pyleva in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk for an ankle injury in January gave her an over-the-counter medication that did not list carphedon as one of its ingredients, said Dr. Nikolai Durmanov, head of the Russian Anti-Doping Committee.

Pyleva told First Channel: "I've been working with this doctor and I trust her a lot, in fact. And what's happened now is just monstrous stupidity."

Under the IOC's rules, athletes testing positive at the Olympics are considered guilty if a banned substance is found, regardless of the circumstances. Durmanov said no appeal was planned at this time.

"It's a catastrophe for us," he said. "We are not going to start some special process, no appeals so far. ... Her brilliant career has been finished in such a dramatic way without her being guilty."

Further possible sanctions against Pyleva — such as a long-term ban from competition — are up to the International Biathlon Union.

The 30-year-old Pyleva is one of the biggest stars in biathlon, which typically draws more than 30,000 spectators to World Cup events and is Europe's most popular televised winter sport. She also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

The silver she won Monday now goes to Germany's Martina Glagow. The bronze falls to Albina Akhatova, Pyleva's Russian teammate, who also took fourth in Thursday's event.

The IOC has conducted 380 tests since the athletes' village opened Jan. 31; Pyleva is the first to be caught by the most rigorous doping control program ever at a Winter Olympics. A total of 1,200 samples are being tested — a 72 percent increase over the number in Salt Lake City, where there were seven doping cases.

Brazilian bobsledder and former hammer thrower Armando dos Santos was the first athlete sent home from the Turin Games for using steroids, but that was the result of a test taken before the Olympics began. A dozen cross-country skiers were suspended five days for elevated hemoglobin, considered health checks by the ski federation that administers them — though they can indicate blood doping. Seven have been retested and cleared to compete; one failed a retest, and the other four had not yet been tested again.

(Source: AP)