Bobsled pilot Martin Galliker immediately resigned from his team after he tested positive for the banned compound testosterone. The announcement was made by his national federation on Wednesday.

According to SBSV, the Swiss bobsled federation, Galliker’s backup sample, taken while he was training in Italy, showed excessive levels of the hormone.

The 34-year-old Swiss athlete was a European silver medalist last season; he was with the Swiss team that finished second in the four-man event at the European Championships that took place in Cesana, Italy in January 2007. Galliker, who started competing in 2005, finished eight in the four-man event at the FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz last year.

Incidentally, it was also in Italy when Brazilian bobsledder Armando dos Santos was kicked out from the 2006 Winter Olympics after he tested for the anabolic steroid nandrolone. Dos Santos, a former hammer, was the first athlete to be disqualified from the Torino Games. There were only two athletes who were evicted from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy. The other athlete was Russian Olga Pylev who was stripped of her silver medal in 15km biathlon after testing positive for carphedon.

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