Flavia Oliveira has succeeded in shortening her suspension for testing positive for the stimulant oxilofrine, and as a result will return to competition earlier than originally allowed.
The 29 year old Brazilian tested positive after the second stage of the Giro del Trentino Donne in Italy. The California resident was originally handed a two year ban last April by USADA, who found that while she didn’t knowingly take a banned substance, she was at ‘significant fault’ for using a weight-loss supplement which had substance listed by its chemical name in the ingredients.
Oliviera’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport succeeded in shortening her ban to 18 months. However CAS ruled that the start date for the suspension should change from the original date of June 19th 2009, when she gave the sample, to August 30th. That was when she last competed.
She is now permitted to resume racing on March 1, making it an effective reduction of three months and 19 days. The former SC Michela Fanini rider has been disqualified from all competitive results achieved on and after June 19th, 2009.
Oliviera will therefore lose out on what had been the best results of her career thus far, namely ninth on a stage of last year’s Giro d’Italia Donne, plus fifth on a stage and ninth overall in the 2009 Route de France.