Disgraced Belarus athlete Nadzeya Ostapchuk is accusing a former coach of framing her, resulting in a positive Olympics drug test.
Ostapchuk was stripped of her women's shot put gold medal after testing positive to using metenolene, promoting New Zealander Valerie Adams to her second Olympic title.
In an interview with Belarus newspaper Pressball, translated by news website Charter 97, Ostapchuk fingered former head coach Anatoly Baduyev, who was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service in June under suspicion of embezzlement.
One accusation against Baduyev was that he extorted money from coaches and athletes by blackmailing them with the threat of positive dope tests.
Ostapchuk said she had been victimised.
"The person [Baduyev], you know who I mean, the one who was involved in blackmail, he promised me long ago: you will have problems with doping control," she said.
"Now I think his threat begins to come true, even though he no longer works with us."
Ostapchuk repeated a desire to carry out her own investigation of the International Olympic Committee test result.
"I have nothing to hide from people. I've spent a lot of efforts to become an Olympic champion, I do not need excuses. I do not want to finish a career like this.
"Athletes need to know that there is someone to rely on, from whom they can receive support and advice. We want to feel protected instead of waiting for meanness from those who should help us."
Meanwhile, an aide to the Belarusian president for physical education sport and tourism told the Belarusian Telegraph Agency the government would fight for Ostapchuk to retain her gold medal.
Sports Medicine specialist, David Gerrard told Firstline the explanation isn't good enough.
“To say this is an innocent mistake would be hard to justify, we’re talking about a very old and somewhat hackneyed anabolic steroid, in other words a bodybuilding, masculine-ising, strength-enhancing drug,” said Mr Gerrard.
Ostapchuk beat Adams by more than half a metre with a best throw of 21.36m.
Her urine samples from the day before the event and immediately after it tested positive to the banned substance but she immediately denied any wrongdoing.
NZN