Rafaela Silva stripped of PanAm gold for doping

LIMA, Peru: Brazil’s Olympic judo champion Rafaela Silva was stripped of her Pan American Games gold medal on Wednesday after failing a drugs test, officials said.

She tested positive for the banned substance fenoterol, which is used to treat asthma. However, the 27-year-old has already insisted she is innocent. “I am clean and I will continue to train and fight to prove my innocence,” Silva told a news conference last Friday.

Fenoterol is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances. Silva, who won Brazil’s first gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, tested positive on August 9 during the Pan American Games in Lima where she won the 57-kilogram category.

She went on to win bronze at the World Judo Championships in Tokyo, where she hopes to defend her Olympic title next year. A second test on August 29 did not show the presence of fenoterol, said Silva, who suggested she may have been exposed to the substance by a friend’s baby. Her Pan American gold has now been awarded to Ana Rosa of Dominica.