Slovenian ice hockey player Ziga Jeglic has been banned for eight months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after testing positive for a banned substance at the 2018 Winter Olympics ©IIHF

Slovenian ice hockey player Ziga Jeglic has been banned for eight months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after testing positive for a banned substance during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

Jeglic was initially suspended on February 20 during the Games in South Korea, when he tested positive for fenoterol, a beta-2 agonist.

He later claimed the substance had been an ingredient in an asthma inhaler that he used before a match against the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), but he had not requested a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE).

Jeglic accepted his provisional suspension in February had has not played or practiced since.

A TUE allows an athlete to use an otherwise banned substance to treat existing medical conditions.

In a statement released at the time, Jeglic said he took the drug "under medical advice".

"It has been prescribed to me after testing for respiratory problems in Slovakia in 2017," he said.

Ziga Jeglic was ordered to leave the Athletes' Village at Pyeongchang 2018 within 24 hours of his positive test ©Getty Images
Ziga Jeglic was ordered to leave the Athletes' Village at Pyeongchang 2018 within 24 hours of his positive test ©Getty Images

"Unfortunately I have forgot to declare it as [a therapeutic use] exception.

"I have overlooked the difference between comparable drugs, which are allowed and would enable me to use it for my respiratory problems during the Olympics.

"I apologise for my negligence to all the persons involved and I accept the further anti-doping procedures."

According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, Jeglic requested a ban of only four months.

However, CAS ruled that whilst the case was an example of a "light degree" of fault, athletes must not be allowed to "hide behind mistakes".

"The medical staff must have known that the asthma inhaler contained a prohibited substance and should have sought a TUE," they said.

The eight-month ban will run from the date of the initial suspension, February 20, 2018.

Four athletes tested positive for banned substances at Pyeongchang 2018 where the CAS ran the anti-doping division.

Among them were two members of the OAR team - who were competing under a neutral flag already due to the Russian doping scandal.

Curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii tested positive for meldonium and bobsleigh's Nadezhda Sergeeva's sample contained traces of heart drug trimetazidine.

Japanese short-track speed skater Kei Saito, who was the first athlete in Pyeongchang to provide a positive sample, failed for masking agent acetazolamide.