Doping trouble

Attempted cheating! Olympic soccer champion banned

Doping trouble for Gabriel Barbosa(Bild: APA/AFP/MAURO PIMENTEL)

Brazil's Olympic soccer champion Gabriel Barbosa has been banned for two years for a doping offense.

The country's anti-doping court on Monday (local time) punished an alleged attempt by the striker to cheat during a training test at his club Flamengo Rio de Janeiro on April 8, 2023. By 5:4 votes, the judges found the 27-year-old guilty of delaying his doping test through recalcitrant behavior.

Barbosa, who celebrated Olympic victory together with superstar Neymar in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, maintained his innocence and announced that he would take the case to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).