Russia loses two European swim titles for doping

Russian swimmer and three-time world champion Yuliya Efimova (Michael Sohn/AP)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Russia has been stripped of two relay gold medals from the 2013 European Short-Course Swimming Championships because of doping by three-time world champion Yuliya Efimova.

Swimming’s governing body FINA says it disqualified all the relay teams Efimova competed on after her positive test for the steroid DHEA in October 2013 in Los Angeles.

FINA stripped Russia’s titles in the 4×50-meter women’s medley relay and mixed medley relay, both won in world record times last December in Herning, Denmark.

Efimova previously lost three individual medals when FINA banned her for 16 months in May.

The 22-year-old Efimova is eligible to race next March, and when Russia hosts the world championships at Kazan from July 24 to Aug. 9.

She retains three long-course world titles and her London Olympics bronze medal in the 200 breaststroke.

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