Hamburg - Five-time Olympic speed skating champion Claudia Pechstein of Germany has been banned for two years by the ruling body ISU for blood doping. The ISU said on its website on Friday it found Pechstein guilty of "the prohibited method of blood doping" from evidence gathered through the 37-year-old's blood profile.
Pechstein is Germany's most successful Winter Olympian ever with nine medals overall (five of them gold) 1992-2006. She is also a six-time world champion and has 25 minor medals from the worlds.
The ISU said its decision was "based on the evidence of Ms Pechstein's profile which included abnormal values and abnormal changes of values in a series of tests (in particular in the tests conducted during the Essent ISU World Allround Championships held in Hamar on February 7-8, 2009)."
Pechstein was banned from February 9, 2009, until February 8, 2011, after the completion of a hearing on Monday and Tuesday.
As a result, she will miss the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and, given her age, may end her career. But the ISU said that Pechstein has appealed the ban before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Pechstein's last title was the European allround crown in January in Heerenveen, Netherlands. She did not medal at the worlds in Hamar, withdrawing after two of four events due to a fever.
