Doctor gets life ban for using doping test lookalikes

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — A doctor from Moldova has been banned from sports for life for arranging for lookalikes to give drug testing samples under the names of real weightlifters heading for the world championships. The International Testing Agency says Dorin Balmus represented three Moldovan athletes in 2015 when they were asked to provide samples shortly before competing at the world championships in Houston. The ITA says the impostors gave samples because the real weightlifters had been doping and risked testing positive. The deception later came to light in a 2020 documentary by German broadcaster ARD.