The case of German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle seems different from other recent doping cases that involved substances with clearer benefits to endurance sports.
German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle was caught using a banned stimulant at the Sochi Olympic Games, as American cross-country skier Kikkan Randall called her “the last person, really, that you would suspect.”
German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, 33, has tested positive for the use of a prohibited substance, according the German news agency DPA.
The Canadian team sprint pair of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey was eliminated from the race without even qualifying for the final round. Head Coach Justin Wadsworth said: "This is the worst feeling I've had since I've been with the team."
A rookie and veteran teamed up to claim a gold medal for Finland in the men's Olympic team sprint, after a finish that was marred by a crash in the lead pack.
Japan's Akira Lenting, 23, got one start at the Olympics, in the men's relay. But a bad day for the rest of his team meant that things didn't go as planned.
Feeling under the weather, Andy Newell is no longer part of the American duo for Wednesday's team sprint. Instead, Erik Bjornsen will join Simi Hamilton. For the women, Kikkan Randall will keep her spot despite difficult races so far this Olympics, and Sophie Caldwell, who turned in the best U.S. women's performance ever in the individual sprint, will be her partner.
Germany’s Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle came a single second away from a bronze medal in Monday’s Olympic biathlon race, despite taking up the sport just a year-and-a-half ago.
For Norway, the country's collapse at the Olympics has prompted fevered news coverage, and speculation that the team’s coaches, and ski technicians, could lose their jobs after the games.
The U.S. biathlon team grinds their skis in Sochi in a ramshackle orange shipping container cluttered with machinery and coiled extension cords—with a couple of full beer cans propping up their jury-rigged waxing bench.
Devon Kershaw said he felt better skiing Friday than previously at this Olympics, but it was hard to tell with too much grip on a klister day in extremely soft and warm conditions. Kershaw placed 35th, his teammate Ivan Babikov finished 39th, Graeme Killick was 65th and Alex Harvey did not finish.
Today's Olympic 15 k saw a podium made of exclusively of skiers that had suffered injuries over the past year, led by Switzerland's Dario Cologna, just three months removed from ankle surgery.
On Thursday, two days after a disappointing result in the Olympic sprint, U.S. skier Kikkan Randall talked about how she'd been buoyed by her fans, her attitude in the days after the race, and her preparation for the rest of the events at the games.
American Biathlete Lowell Bailey skied and shot his way to eighth place at the Olympics on Thursday, relying on the calm and poise that he had been missing earlier this week. The result was the best-ever Olympic finish in biathlon for the U.S.
Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk was crying at the finish line of Thursday's Olympic 10 k, though it was unclear if they were tears of joy, or of pain. The 31-year-old had won a clear victory over Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla and Norway’s Therese Johaug.
At the water below Sochi's mountain venues, the temperature was 60 degrees--which helped a FasterSkier reporter better grasp the idea of putting the Olympics in this strange part of the world.
“It can be so many things,” Kikkan Randall's coach, Erik Flora, said in an interview after Tuesday's Olympic sprint race. “I’ll go back and review this and see—I’m sure it’ll play over and over in our heads.”
After blowing away the field in Tuesday’s pursuit race, biathlete Darya Domracheva got to carry Belarus’s red and green colors after all, as she cruised down the homestretch far ahead of her competition.
Norway's Ola Vigen Hattestad stayed out of trouble to win a gold medal in the Sochi sprint, while Sweden's Emil Joensson escaped a crash to claim what may end up being this Olympics' most improbable bronze.
After frustrating results for Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey, “They get 12 hours to digest it,” their coach said. “Then, we go for the next one.”