Armstrong, a Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Game gold medallist, was fined $30,000 (£19,000/€23,000) by an American court last year.

The WCF's hearing panel ruled that he committed an anti-doping violation and handed him an 18 month suspension, effective from February 17, when the panel made their initial ruling.

Armstrong strongly denied knowingly taking the substance, claiming his late wife's medications may have been mixed up with his own as she was prescribed Tamoxifen during treatment for breast cancer.

In a statement, the Canadian Curling Association (CCA) said: "The CCA believes doping has no place in sport and furthermore fair and equal competition is an essential tenet of sport and why our association makes significant efforts to see that effective national and international anti-doping education and doping control programmes are in place."

Indicating he would appeal the sanction, Armstrong told The Calgary Herald: "Given my medical history, it was actually potentially very dangerous for me to take the Tamoxifen with the side-effects.

"Even they [the WCF] accept the fact that it got into my system inadvertently.

"There was no intent to cheat, and they've accepted that."

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