There has been an extremely unhealthy atmosphere in world sports recently. The passion surrounding the so-called “McLaren report,” which brought charges against dozens of leading Russian athletes for doping and other violations of the rules, has led to the fact that athletes from other countries feel entitled to make statements about Russians that border on rudeness.
French biathlete Aristide Begu reacted extremely painfully to the defeat from the Russian Alexandra Loginova at the next stage of the IBU Cup in the Italian city of Martella.“Losing to the strongest - yes! Losing to a cheater is a no-no!” - on Twitter.
At the stage in Martell, Loginov won the sprint and pursuit, and Begu took 8th and 6th places in these races, respectively.
The IBU Cup is, figuratively speaking, the second division of world biathlon. This tournament involves athletes who, based on their results, do not qualify for the main roster of national teams competing in the World Cup.
22-year-old Aristide Begu in December 2016 won the pursuit race at the IBU Cup stage in Ridnow, Italy. After this, the athlete was included in the French national team for the World Cup in Nove Mesto, but Begu did not manage to prove himself successfully, and he returned to performances in IBU Cup.
Alexander Loginov: the fall of Russian hope
However, Begu now has a new competitor - 24-year-old Russian Alexander Loginov. Or rather, the competitor is old, but temporarily absent.
Loginov was considered one of the most talented young biathletes in Russia. He four-time champion world juniors and five-time champion Europe among juniors. Loginov made his debut as part of the main Russian national team in 2013, in December of the same year he won a victory as part of the Russian national team in the relay race at the World Cup stage. Loginov was part of the Russian team at the 2014 Olympics, but did not shine, but at the World Cup stages after the Games he twice became second - in the sprint in Kontiolahti and in the pursuit in Homenkollen.
Alexander Loginov (Russia) at the training session of the Russian biathlon team before the start XXII winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev
The fairy tale ended when the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) received information from the IBU about the suspicious result of a doping test taken from an athlete out of competition on November 26, 2013. In November 2014, the IBU decided to re-analyze suspected doping samples based on new methods. Five of these samples gave a positive result, including the Loginov sample taken in November 2013. International Union biathletes (IBU) informed the SBR that a prohibited drug, recombinant erythropoietin, had been detected in the athlete’s sample.
The Anti-Doping Committee decided to disqualify the suspended Alexander Loginov for two years from the moment of re-analysis of the sample, which gave a positive result.
On July 10, 2015, by decision of the IBU, Loginov was disqualified until November 25, 2016. All results of the athlete, starting from the moment the sample was taken in November 2013, are invalid.
The Russian “served his time”, but the biathlon stars demand that he be punished for life
It so happened that while the passions around the Russians were gaining momentum, Loginov was serving his sentence, which ended just at the end of 2016. That is, at the moment when the question arose about the possible disqualification of the Russian biathlon team in its entirety.
Even in Russia there were many sports journalists who felt that Loginov’s return to the Russian national team was unethical. What can we say about representatives of other countries!
One of the world's leading biathletes Johannes Be stated that Loginov should be disqualified for life. In an interview with Norwegian media, Boe said that he “doesn’t want to see Loginov at the World Cup anymore.”
Should we then be surprised at the statements of Aristide Begu?
The situation, frankly speaking, is not pretty. On the one hand, the anger of athletes who consider themselves “clean” from doping is understandable. On the other hand, Loginov, as they say, “served for his time,” and double punishment for the same sin is considered nonsense by lawyers all over the world.
Not only Be, but also senior comrade Aristide Begu, the leader of the World Cup, took up arms against Loginov Martin Fourcade. Back in mid-December 2016, he wrote on social networks about his dissatisfaction with the fact that an athlete who was caught doping two years ago was competing at the IBU Cup.
Fourcade has many fans in Russia, who then responded to their idol in unflattering terms. So much so that Fourcade himself decided to explain himself to them in a special address. “Unfortunately, one Russian athlete who competed today at the IBU Cup was caught for doping (EPO) only 2 years ago. I sincerely believe that the managers and coaches of the Russian Biathlon Federation are sending the wrong signal by allowing him to compete again at this problematic time. My intolerance for doping has never been and never will be focused on Russia. I took the same position in relation to the doping scandals that occurred in Germany, Norway, Ukraine, Lithuania and also in France,” Fourcade explained.
“I don’t trust anyone on this team anymore”
Extremely harsh statements are made not only against Loginov. The wave raised by the “McLaren report,” in which the names of about three dozen Russian biathletes appear, made, for example, a previously very modest Czech woman talkative Gabriela Koukalova.
“I don’t trust anyone in this team anymore, sorry,” said the athlete, speaking about the Russian team in an interview with the Championship.com portal. — When people and teams do not respect international anti-doping rules, they should not compete with us. It’s difficult for me to explain this in English, but we should also be talking about a team in which too many athletes were caught doping.” At the same time, the biathlete honestly admitted that she did not know which specific Russian athletes took doping and whether there was evidence of their guilt.
As you can see, bullying Russians is in vogue these days, and is it worth blaming the young Frenchman Begu for succumbing to the general mood.
Only one thing is unclear - what should Alexander Loginov do? Voluntarily give up biathlon? Go to a monastery? Bequeath recent victories upset Aristide Begu? After all, on at the moment Having served his sentence, the athlete started everything from scratch, and there are no doubts about the honesty of his current victories, at least for now. Even if a measure such as a lifelong ban from biathlon for the first violation of anti-doping rules is now introduced, it cannot apply to Loginov, since the law does not have retroactive effect.
However, modern times in sports, this is a story not about the law, but about the Inquisition. And everyone who is not too lazy is ready to try on the role of inquisitor in relation to Russians.
Two-time world champion Dmitry Yaroshenko in an interview with Sportbox.ru explained why he does not train children, recalled the scandal in which he was the main participant, and also expressed his opinion regarding the greatness of Martin Fourcade and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.
“In 15 years you can start training kids”
– After completing my sports career, I worked for three years in the Administration of the city of Khanty-Mansiysk, being responsible for the development physical culture and sports. Now for the second year I have been working at the AU “YugraMegaSport” - this is one of the largest organizations in Russia, which holds not only regional competitions at the highest level, but also all-Russian and international ones sporting events. For example, such as the World Chess Championships, World Cups in biathlon, water polo, streetwork, Russian championships in ski race. On modern sports facilities, meeting all international standards, not only children and district teams are trained various types sports, but also training events for Russian national teams take place.
I would like to note that from March 1 to March 9, the II All-Russian Winter Spartakiad disabled people, who received a huge number positive feedback. Officials, guests and competition participants thanked the Government of our district, headed by N.V. Komarova and “UgraMegaSport” for high level carrying out.
– Did you have any desire to start coaching after finishing your career?
– I was thinking about coaching. And there were even some proposals that came to nothing.
– Which ones, for example?
– There was an offer to lead the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug biathlon team. But things didn’t go further than a proposal, or rather an idea. And of course, I won’t offer myself. If they did not see me as a person who could establish training process- Well, that means they didn’t see it. I am often asked if I would like to coach children. I will be able to train children in 10-20 years. But at the moment, especially after finishing your career, when you are full of ideas and knowledge that are relevant, they should be given not to children, but to working professionals. This is the same as teaching higher mathematics in elementary school. Due to their education, children simply will not understand anything. Therefore, if you train now, you need to work at least with juniors. In 15 years, when my knowledge becomes irrelevant, then, probably, I can start training children.
I would also like to note this trend: despite large number various systems for training athletes, all of them are essentially based on the Soviet school. It is impossible to become a champion without work. And now they want to train with minimal loads and make it enjoyable. Enjoyment is only a short period of time after the recovery period, when you enter a new training process. Everything that happens next is not about pleasure at all. Therefore, I believe that if you practice for pleasure, there will be no results.
I trained with the guys from the Soviet national team - I saw how they train. All of them, and I along with them, trained according to the Soviet system. Now we’ve tried a bunch of things, but it seems that we still need to train a lot, and it’s not fun. If you endure in training, you will endure in competition. If you are lazy in training, how will you force yourself to endure in the race?
– Have you received any offers from the Russian national team?
– There are many young coaches in the Russian national team. However, there is one trend. Of course, I don’t want to criticize anyone, because it’s a thankless task, but when they ask about the reasons for an unsuccessful performance at one stage or another, the following question arises: if you haven’t trained anyone, if you weren’t a great athlete yourself, then how can you coach a national team? ? Of course, it is not at all necessary for a great athlete to become a great coach.
If Yaroshenko were to work in the national team now, it would only be, perhaps, as an expert or consultant. But this must be done exclusively next to the lump trainer. Then it would be really interesting to work, study, and gain experience. And if they appoint you as a senior coach, when you don’t have any athletes of your own, then...
Look at the system in biathlon. A coach leads an athlete, develops him, then sends him to the national team and thinks that he will run there exactly as well as he did. But often the opposite happens. I don’t have my own wards at all, that’s why they didn’t invite me.
“Russians with golden hands and golden brains work for significantly less money”
– Who is your top coach in Russia?
“I guess I went too far after all.” The lump coach is the great Tarasov. They are truly lumps in sports. In biathlon, coaches with good experience are this, this. Andrei Aleksandrovich, being a shooting coach, always instilled calm in us. At the shooting test before the 2008 World Cup relay in Östersund, when we had to defend the title of world champions and when everyone was shaking, he gave us self-confidence with his attitude and his experience.
One of the troubles in Russia is that we change coaches too often for one to say: yes, this is a lump coach. We often don’t even allow a person to open up. Once - and you were removed. It's depressing.
Very experienced trainer- Vladimir Bragin. Under his leadership, the entire Ugra men's team showed stable results. Now he is on the national team, coaching with. A coach, in my opinion, should be a stone behind which you can go. Because athletes don’t always have victories. When you lose, you become naked, and you feel like everyone is ready to point a finger at you and criticize you. At such moments, you really need the support of a coach.
The most talented coach is. No matter how our great athletes treat him, he is very talented and is a follower of the Soviet school.
When you, an athlete, lose, you will always get the short end of the stick. The coach always has to answer. He can be fired, the athlete cannot. Therefore, it turns out that, unfortunately, our athlete is always a good one. No one will ask him what he didn’t finish, why he started snot-drooling. By and large, the coach will always be to blame.
– How do you feel about attracting foreign specialists?
– I have a positive attitude if it does not cause harm, as was the case with some of the specialists involved. There is also a huge difference in financial terms. “Visitors” are always provided with incomparably better conditions.
– I dare say that we are talking about the well-known Swedish coach?
– Including about him. But he wasn't the only one. I won’t name positions, but there were many similar people. But now they are not on the team, and the remaining Russians with golden hands and golden brains continue to work for significantly less money. I know firsthand how sensitively specialists with Russian passports react to this. Wings definitely don’t grow from this. On the contrary, you feel like some kind of humiliated, second-class person.
– How would you rate the performance of the men’s and women’s teams at the World Championships in Hochfilzen?
- For men - four. An individual medal was not enough to get "excellent". Girls... You see, you can’t give it “unsatisfactory” either: everyone is trying, everyone is working. Yes, in mixed relay The medal is largely due to the guys, but we were there too. Probably, after all, “satisfactory.” The fact is that before the World Championships there are a lot of forecasts. I predicted bronze in the mixed and hoped that the girls would compete in their relay.
“I thought it was just a bad joke”
– If not for biathlon, where would we see Dmitry Yaroshenko?
– At the age of 25, when I was doing very poorly in biathlon, I had a crazy desire to become a doctor. I felt internally that I really wanted to be a doctor. My parents are doctors. But then I realized that I would not give up. And he continued his career as a biathlete.
– Compared to the times when you competed, the results of the women’s team have changed a lot. What's happening?
– I went to the European Championship and followed our team a little. If you compare at least the moves of foreigners and ours, the difference is visible to the naked eye. No matter how our fans and the girls themselves treat me after these words, they should be like men. I mean muscularly. They must do push-ups, they must do pull-ups. Let someone tell me that, or they didn’t do it. They must do this by definition. There is no other way. But these sluggish accompanying movements of the hands... They should look like, like. Or be as thin and wiry as. Look at her! Not an ounce of excess fat, just muscle.
We need to do more general physical training. Real general physical training, which was given by the same Polkhovsky. Previously, for example, women trained together with men. And they did more general physical training than we did to develop their shoulder girdle. and the other girls kindly bothered us, because we couldn’t even get off in front of them.
And if we look at the current women's team, who will be able to train with at least the junior men's team? Let's be objective - no one can. Now our women are girls, they are young ladies. But you will finish the hard training, only then put on your dresses and be beauties.
It seems to me that it’s time for our coaches to stop coddling with athletes and recruit those who will really sweat and plow. And now you look at some of them - as if they had come from a sanatorium. In such cases, you should probably send to the Russian Cup, where there is an army of hungry athletes who will “devour” you. After all, the conditions at the World Cup and the Russian Cup are completely different. We don't have fresh juice, fried eggs or sausages for breakfast. I remember very well the differences in living conditions “there” and “here”.
– You remembered Albina Akhatova. I can’t help but ask you a question about the situation you found yourself in at the same time. Is that doping scandal a sore subject for you?
– No, this is absolutely not a sore point for me. At first I couldn’t believe it at all, I thought that this simply couldn’t happen. He repeatedly stated that we did not do anything to ourselves, we had a doctor who, knowing all the prohibited drugs, would not give us anything bad. We tested at any time of the day. Everyone knew where we were.
When I found out, I thought it was just a bad joke. After sample A was positive, everyone was sure that this was a mistake and that sample B would definitely be negative. The situation with her was completely incomprehensible; she was not opened for a very long time. Only the name of the banned drug was changed five times. Then we went to the hearings, where we told the absolute truth, how it all happened. But this did not influence the decision of the board in Salzburg in any way - we were disqualified. Of course, it was psychologically difficult...
Then I felt like some kind of outcast. To this day, after some interviews, he is called a dopingist. I really wanted to get back to my previous level. Yes, and the prerequisites were there - he became a three-time world champion in summer biathlon. But in the end it was not possible to gain a foothold.
– Why didn’t it work?
– At that time, strong young guys came to the national team, who were objectively stronger. And my colleagues on the national team - , - objectively did not compete with those guys who went to Vancouver. Perhaps if I had excellent individual conditions, like, for example, something could work out. Now, after three years, I do not regret that I ended my career and began to realize myself in another field. Fortunately, I repeat, I was invited to a good position, where I gained enormous managerial experience.
At first, when I finished, I practically didn’t watch biathlon. Because I wanted to run, I wanted to compete at the Olympic Games. I often dreamed about how I conquered Olympic medal. And then I woke up and felt very disappointed that this was a dream.
Of course, it’s gnawing that this medal is missing. It's a pity that on mine sports career this spot was placed. Before this I made excuses for some reason, but now I don’t want to do that anymore. I consider myself a smart person and, knowing that I was tested very often, I always provided information about where I was. And at the same time taking illegal drugs... We trusted our doctor. But accepting something knowing that it is prohibited is nonsense and absurdity.
I understand that if I hid or mixed something up, and then told stories that I got it through lipstick or cream, that would be funny. But I didn’t hide from anyone and didn’t hide anything. I knew that I was taking a drug for recovery, but, as it turned out later, the tests were positive.
“Everything will be rewarded to Shipulin in Korea”
– What can you advise Alexander Loginov and Irina Starykh, who find themselves in a similar situation?
– From what I see, for example, a lot of people support it. When Yaroshenko gave interviews, he was almost always called a doper. Now I laugh, because I understand that there are resources for which, even if you are an angel, you will still remain an asshole.
Now we can draw an interesting analogy with Trump, who became president, how many negative comments and statements there were! It became even more after taking office. But the man does his job. I would also like Loginov to abstract from this and understand what they are doing in the national team, why they are there. There will be sidelong glances, some will not say hello, but if you want to become an Olympic champion, go to her. Because in addition to a bunch of dissatisfied people, there is a huge army of fans for whom you need to perform. Some of them still write words of gratitude to me: “Thank you, thanks to you we began to watch and become interested in biathlon.” You won't be good to everyone. The dog barks - the caravan moves on. Moreover, they have already passed the worst.
When I arrived after disqualification in Ruhpolding, at the World Cup, I thought that everyone was devouring me with their eyes, it was very unpleasant. But there was a group of local fans there - older women. They knew me by name and when they saw me again, they had no negativity towards me. Many Germans came up to me to take pictures.
Probably, the most negativity I received was from kind Russian fans. When you are a champion, everyone loves you. As soon as you stumble a little, they try to finish you off even more. And I'm not talking about doping now. We must understand that doping is a taboo. This is a shame and a dirty stain.
– What is your opinion regarding the conflict between our guys and Martin Fourcade at the World Championships?
– I believe that in this situation, the person who suffered the most was the one who acted as a lightning rod. Anton rocked himself on these waves. Loginov won a medal and somehow remained on the sidelines. And all the emotional burden remained with Anton. This is a very significant outburst of emotions that you definitely weren’t saving up for.
Shipulin is a man with a big soul, a real captain, he stood up for a team member and will receive all the negativity.
– What does Anton lack in order to become truly great?
- Think. that he has enough of everything. This reminds me of the situation with. Disappointing fourth places, falls. But in the end, Olympic gold. It seems to me that fate is testing Anton. I believe that such a good person as Anton Shipulin will be rewarded in Korea.
“Bjoerndalen is a pitiful sight now”
– What do you think about the continuation of Bjoerndalen’s career?
“For me now this is a pitiful sight.” I ran with him when he was great. I remember looking at him with a sigh. I remember the emotions I felt when this great athlete took a photo with me. And now it increasingly looks like kicking someone who is down. If he had left earlier, unattainable, a demigod, it would have been a different matter.
He won a medal at the World Cup only because he was not on the Russian team. If we had him, he would have had to break through the selection sieve a long time ago and he would not have made it through. Bjoerndalen is a great athlete. But the great ones have to leave. As it was done, for example, . And now his name is being devalued. Now a parody of the great Bjoerndalen is running. Nothing prevents you from leaving and meeting with children, coming to TV.
For a long time now they have been comparing who is cooler – and Bjoerndalen. And the more often the Frenchman beats him, the less significant the Norwegian’s figure becomes.
– What is the Fourcade phenomenon? Why does a person win six World Cups in a row?
- He is unique. But you know what I would like to say: now we hear more and more often about therapeutic assumptions. I have big questions for people who suffer from mononucleosis and gain more than a minute from completely healthy people. Interesting stories there are those with congenital elevated hemoglobin. Apparently, abnormal health conditions can allow one to become a unique athlete. And then we find out that many legendary people had therapeutic permission to take illegal drugs.
Against the background of all this, it is impressive. I watched with great pleasure and worried about him. Nobody will say about Sergei that he has permission, that he, poor thing, suffers from mononucleosis or asthma. Therefore, the Fourcade phenomenon... It's great. I hope that such phenomena will grow here too.
Andrey Levin, Sportbox.ru
“We know who doped. He has been suspended pending clarification,” the IBU office said and lit the fuse. It should explode very soon, and this will happen on the eve of the World Championships in Norway. Doping stories This is not the first time in biathlon that they have come up on the eve of the main starts of the season - the World Championships and the Olympic Games. This tradition is already more than 10 years old. While waiting for the name of the criminal to be announced, let us recall similar cases.
2003. “Akhatova on the Trainspot”
The first known doping scandal broke out in the Russian national team after the World Cup in Antholz, shortly before the World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk. Then one of the contenders for victory in overall standings Albina Akhatova tested positive for niketamide. One of the largest newspapers in the country published an article entitled “Akhatova on the Trainspot.” However, after some time it turned out that the athlete was injected with the drug after the race due to poor health (low blood pressure). Since the Russian Biathlon Union did not complete the necessary documents on time, it was fined, but the athlete was acquitted and won two gold medals in Khanty-Mansiysk.
2008. “Uncaught” Varis
The first doping disqualification forced the Finnish skier Kaisu Waris go to biathlon. At first she wasn’t good at shooting, but in January 2008 she unexpectedly won the sprint, after which she tested positive for erythropoietin. The International Biathlon Union initially disqualified the athlete for life,
but then Varis' lawyers took issue with the fact that she was not present at the autopsy of sample B, and therefore it could not be considered positive. Thus, the Finn was formally acquitted, but her own federation did not want to allow the repeat offender and her boyfriend and doctor Kari-Pekka Curé to come within shooting distance of the national team.
2009. The loudest scandal
The then leaders of the Russian national team Albina Akhatova, Dmitry Yaroshenko And Ekaterina Yurieva tested positive back in December, when the IBU adopted new anti-doping rules providing for sampling on out-of-competition days. In fact, a blow was dealt to those who like to inject erythropoietin, which significantly changed the balance of power in world biathlon. At the tip of the iceberg were the Russians, who were removed from the race just a few days before the start of the World Championships in Pyeongchang. Long trials led to nothing, and all three received two years of disqualification. Soon, the SBR, as part of a clean-up operation by RusADA, identified two more violators in the domestic arena - Andrei Prokunin and Veronika Timofeeva.
2014. Old rake
On the eve of preparation for Olympic Games In Sochi, the Russian Biathlon Union stepped on an old rake. Recent reservists Irina Starykh and Ekaterina Yuryeva sharply improved with the start of the season and made an application to get into national team, and already in January it became known about their positive tests, also associated with EPO. Starykh received a three-year disqualification, and Yuryeva received eight years for a repeat incident, which effectively marked the end of her career. Later, during repeated analysis, another violator was caught - Alexander Loginov, also received three years. In addition to the Russians, on the eve of the Olympics, Lithuanian Karolis Zlatkauskas was also caught.
2015. Father answered for his son
The main news of last season was the involvement of the Tashler family in working with the odious doctor Michele Ferrari. As the Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport found out, IBU Vice President Gottlieb Taschler turned to the doctor with a request to help his son, a promising biathlete Daniel Tashler, use EPO. The newspaper published a transcript of the conversation in which the doctor explained to the official how to properly bypass doping tests. In addition to his son, Taschler apparently asked for his son-in-law, an Austrian skier Johannes Dur, who was caught on the eve of the Games in Sochi. As a result, Taschler Jr. was suspended from competition, and his father from working at the IBU, which did not prevent him from remaining on the organizing committee of the World Cup in Antholz.
2016. Who is Mr. X
Right now we can only speculate about what is possible. Official representatives of the Russian and German federations have already denied the version of the involvement of their athletes. The possible range of violators is limited by the number of athletes who suddenly stopped competitions and did not go to North America. It is unlikely that any of the superstars will be among them, since the Norwegians are calmly preparing for the home World Cup and are giving out interviews, Yakov Fak honestly admitted about the disease, and his current results speak more about anti-doping. Otherwise, representatives of the middle and small classes are under suspicion. There is little time before sample B is opened, and therefore the name of the offender will soon become known and will explain a lot.
Next week, the executive committee of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) will hold a regular meeting on the issue of doping - and has invited athletes to it. Today it became known that more than 170 biathletes have signed an appeal to the IBU demanding more decisive action against doping scandals.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
In December, after the release of the second part of the independent expert’s report Russian sports accusations were made of an organized system of doping fraud during, as well as before and after the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. According to a Canadian lawyer, it affects three dozen sports and more than a thousand athletes. Under suspicion 28 Russian participants Games in Sochi, the affairs of which were opened by the International Olympic Committee. As you know, two of them are biathletes.
WADA submitted to the IBU a list of 31 Russian athletes suspected of violating anti-doping rules. On December 22, the IBU executive committee held an unscheduled meeting, as a result of which it became known: Russia returned the rights to two international biathlon starts - the 2016/17 World Cup in Tyumen and the youth and junior world championships in Ostrov, while retaining the world championship entrusted to Tyumen for now -2021.
The IBU Executive Committee has decided to continue the investigation into the athletes' affairs - and the lack of immediate and decisive action in the matter Russian doping led to a number of loud statements from representatives of leading teams, from the Frenchman and the leaders of the Czech team. Among other things, the participation in the IBU Cup of a person who had served a doping suspension was actively discussed. However, the question of a boycott of competitions by biathlon stars, despite a number of emotional statements, is not yet raised.
Next meeting of the executive committee members IBU - January 21 in Italian Anterselva (Antholz). Further decisions will be made on the second part of McLaren's report, and not only officials, but also team representatives and current athletes will be invited to participate in an open dialogue.
WHO SAID WHAT
I agree with my teammate and everyone else who believes that doping needs to be fought. I also signed a letter that talked about this. But there is no word in the letter that we need to fight against Russia. It talks about the problem of doping in general. I know that biathletes signed it too. (Natalia MARYANCHIK)
IN domestic sports A new doping scandal is breaking out. The World Doping Agency has identified more than 30 Russian biathletes who are suspected of using prohibited medications. What is known about this case at the moment and what is the reaction to this news of Russian and foreign athletes and functionaries - in the RBC material
Dmitry Malyshko (Russia) on the course sprint race among men at the third stage of the Biathlon World Cup 2016/17 season in the Czech Republic Nove Mesto na Morave (Photo: Alexey Filippov/RIA Novosti)
What is known so far
- On December 15, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) received from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) a list of names of 31 Russian biathletes suspected of doping.
- The list was compiled based on the results of an investigation by McLaren's independent commission, so we can talk about athletes who used doping in the period from 2011 to 2015.
- IBU President Anders Besseberg said that there are three groups of athletes on the list: active athletes; those who have already completed their careers; and those who are not listed in the IBU database. In the latter case, we are talking about athletes who compete only in domestic Russian competitions.
- The names of the athletes convicted of doping will not be revealed until a decision is made on each of them.
- The IBU announced the creation of a special working group, which included lawyers and experts in the anti-doping field. It has already held its first meeting, at which it reviewed information about the existing Russian biathletes, which are mentioned in the McLaren report. The group will report to the IBU on the information found and propose disciplinary action at a meeting on December 22.
- A decision on the doping cases of 31 Russian athletes may be made before the start of the World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, which will be held from February 8 to 19, 2017. According to some reports, this could happen before the New Year.
- The holding of the Biathlon World Championships in Tyumen in 2021 is under threat; a decision on it may be made at the IBU Congress next year.
Athletes' reaction
Currently, the Russian team is at the third stage of the World Cup in the Czech Nove Mesto, it will end on December 18. The current season, compared to the previous one, is shaping up for Russian team not so bad: our athletes won six medals (one gold, three silver and two bronze). The Norwegian team has the same result, best results Only the French and Germans showed.
Russian athletes, who took 2nd place in the men's relay at the second stage of the Biathlon World Cup 2016/17 season in Pokljuka, Slovenia. From left to right: Maxim Tsvetkov, Anton Shipulin, Anton Babikov, Matvey Eliseev (Photo: Andrey Anosov/SBR/RIA Novosti)
