Engquist fined $1,900 for drug smuggling

Former 100-metre hurdles Olympic and world champion Ludmila Engquist was fined 20,000 Swedish crowns ($1,900) on Wednesday for drug smuggling.

"She is a public person and a role model for millions of people. I have taken that into consideration," chief prosecutor Gunnar Fjaestad told the Swedish news agency TT.

"She takes responsibility for what she's done and wants this case closed," her lawyer Leif Gustavson said.

Swedish tabloid Expressen on Wednesday published a report of an earlier hearing when she was said to have admitted buying a bottle of pills containing steroids at a market in Moscow.

She said she had taken six pills over two days between training sessions in Lillehammer in Norway.

Earlier this month, Engquist was handed a two-year ban from bobsleigh racing, her second sports career, after failing a drugs test.

She had been in training for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City after finishing fourth with her co-pilot in the world championships earlier this year.

Russian-born Engquist, who became a Swedish national heroine for her track exploits, switched to bobsleigh in 1999.

But she admitted early last month having used steroids, telling Swedish TV: "I have taken forbidden substances. It was incredibly stupid."

Engquist, a Swedish citizen since 1996, won athletics gold at the Atlanta Summer Games and a second world championship in 1997.

The nation's love affair reached a new peak when she overcame cancer and made a winning return to the track in 1999 after a 13 month absence and just three months after having a breast removed.

Originally competing for Russia, Engquist won the 100 metres hurdles at the Tokyo world championships in 1991 but in 1993 she was banned for four years after failing a steroids test.

She fought the ruling, saying her previous husband and trainer had put drugs into her drinks without her knowledge. She won the case and the ban against her was lifted in 1995.