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Japanese Ice Skater Kei Saito Is First Athlete to Be Sent Home From Winter Olympics for Alleged Doping

Japanese speedskater Kei Saito failed doping screening.

A Japanese speedskater has become the first athlete to be sent home from the 2018 Winter Olympics for failing a drug test. Kei Saito, 21, tested positive for acetalozamide—a chemical used to hide the use of banned drugs. Saito, who had yet to compete in the Games, has now left the Olympic Village and is facing a full investigation and insists he is innocent. The International Olympic Committee has stepped up drug testing for the Games after the Russian doping scandal implicated some medalists from the Sochi Games in 2014. “I am shocked by this as I have never tried to commit doping,” said Saito in a statement. “I have been trained in anti-doping. I have never taken a steroid so there is no need for me to mask something, and I never had to drop weight by using this medicine.”