Control outside of competitions
Positive doping test for Olympic athlete
Updated on 02/02/2026 – 3:33 p.mReading time: 1 min.
A week before the start of the Olympic Games in Milan there is the first case of doping in biathlon.
Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler tested positive for the banned substance letrozole during a doping test, reports the Italian news agency ANSA. The 24-year-old’s check was carried out outside of the competition.
Letrozole has been banned since 2008 and lowers estrogen levels, which are increased by anabolic steroids, for example. However, the drug is also used in the early stages of breast cancer. According to ANSA, the biathlete was suspended and must now explain the circumstances behind the increased value. There was initially no reaction from her.
Passler comes from Antholz, where the Olympic ski hunter races will take place starting next Sunday. She has been competing in the World Cup since the end of 2021, and in January she was the starting runner in the Italian women’s relay at the competitions in Oberhof, Thuringia. The former junior world champion has not yet made it into the top ten in the relay in an individual race. With the Italian women’s relay team, she made it to third place twice in the winter of 2022/2023 alongside stars Lisa Vittozzi and Dorothea Wierer.
She is the niece of Johann Passler, who won two bronze medals for Italy at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary.
