This Isn’t What Counselors Mean by Giving Your Marriage a Boost
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MOSCOW — The husband and coach of Russian hurdler Lyudmila Narozhilenko said he put banned steroids into his wife’s prescribed medication because she planned to leave him.
In a letter to the Russian track and field federation, Nikolai Narozhilenko said his wife had fallen in love with her Swedish manager and planned to divorce him and move to Stockholm with their 11-year-old daughter.
Out of spite, Narozhilenko said, he replaced harmless protein pills with 35 anabolic steroids.
Lyudmila Narozhilenko, 28, was suspended for four years after testing positive for drugs in March after meets in Spain, where she broke the world record three times in the 60-meter hurdles. The records were later negated.
After receiving the statements from Narozhilenko’s husband, however, the federation requested the International Amateur Athletic Federation, the sport’s world governing body, to consider Lyudmila’s case.
The federation also fired Nikolai Narozhilenko from the coaching staff and is suing him for damages.
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