Doping – FasterSkier.com

Testing agency says Ukrainian Olympic cross country skier tested positive for steroid, stimulant

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 16, 2022

A back-of-the-pack women’s skier competing for Ukraine at the Beijing Olympics has tested positive for banned drugs, according to the agency that’s overseeing testing at the Games. Valentyna Kaminska tested positive for a banned steroid and stimulants on the day she finished 79th in the 10-kilometer classic event, the International Testing Agency said in a statement Wednesday. Kaminska has been provisionally suspended until the case is resolved and is banned from participating in further Olympic...

Community Doping General News Olympics Racing

Bolshunov has never tested positive. But the shadow of Sochi still hangs over his Olympic win.

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 10, 2022

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — Russia, and its flag, are officially barred from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, a ruling that stems from continuing doping violations following a massive, state-sponsored scandal at the 2014 Games in Sochi that included cross-country skiers. But other Russian cross-country skiers are still competing here, under the flag of their country’s Olympic committee. And on Sunday, in their first race of the Games, Russian men took the top two places. Star Alexander...

Doping General News Racing

Estonia’s Andrus Veerpalu Guilty of Supporting Doping: Banned Two Years by FIS

Jason AlbertApril 15, 2021

On April 14, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced former Estonian cross-country skier Andrus Veerpalu was found guilty by the CAS Anti-Doping Division. Veerpalu was involved with “Operation Aderlass”, a blood doping scheme run by Dr. Marc Schmidt in Germany. Veerpalu’s penalty is a two-year ban from FIS sanctioned events ending on March 17, 2023. Now retired from skiing, the fifty-year-old Veerpalu in recent years has served as a coach for team “Haanja” in Estonia....

Doping General News Racing

Full CAS Ruling for WADA v. RUSADA Released

Jason AlbertJanuary 15, 2021

This week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport released its full ruling for the case: World Anti-Doping Agency v. Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). Last month, CAS made a binding decision on the case that received widespread condemnation from clean sport advocates and applause from within much of the Russian sports community. The cliff notes version of the Dec. 17 ruling halved the penalty from four to two years for Russia. WADA had sought a four-year ban from...

Doping News Racing

CAS Ruling: Russia Banned from 2021 and 2022 Olympics

FasterSkierDecember 17, 2020

Today, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided Russia will not be represented or recognized officially at the 2021 Tokyo or 2022 Beijing Olympics. The ruling, handed down on Dec. 17, mostly concludes a long-winded judicial process between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). WADA had originally sanctioned RUSADA to a major competition ban of four years. Today’s CAS ruling, although seemingly in agreement with WADA’s arguments, reduced that penalty...

Doping Feature

FasterSkier Explains: Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act Passes Senate

Gavin KentchNovember 20, 2020

FasterSkier Explains: Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act Passes Senate A new anti-doping bill that criminalizes international doping conspiracies, while pointedly focusing on high-level organizers rather than on individual athletes, and that makes an expansive claim for U.S. jurisdiction over doping occurring at international competitions while excepting the most high-profile American professional sports leagues, is on the verge of becoming law. Here’s what you need to know: What it is: “An act to impose criminal sanctions on certain...

Community Doping

A Dog’s Life for Molly: The Anti-Doping Dog

Jason AlbertNovember 18, 2020

Molly is a rare dog, although let’s go with this premise, all dogs are good. But some, like Molly, might be slightly better. Hailing from a working line of Springer Spaniels in Northern Ireland, Molly now resides in Sweden with her caretakers, Joanna and Michael Sjöö. Both are part-time doping control agents with the Swedish Sports Federation. Molly is six years old and also works a part-time gig with the Swedish Sports Federation. With a...

Doping Opinion World Cup

Doping, Bias, and Cleaning up Sport

Jason AlbertOctober 30, 2020

Covering doping in sports like biathlon and cross-country skiing here in North America can make one feel self-rightous. The U.S. and Canada run clean systems if positive doping tests are the benchmark for suspicion. As far as we can tell, there’s been a single case involving a North American nordic sport athlete. In 1987, an American caused a stir after the 1987 Nordic World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. Kerry Lynch, a nordic combined skier, admitted...

Doping Feature

Charging into November with Curtailed Anti-Doping Testing

Jason AlbertOctober 26, 2020

Last week Matt Futterman of The New York Times wrote two stories of interest to readers of FasterSkier. One piece was titled “Winter Sports Athletes Are Crisscrossing Europe for Races. Is That a Good Idea?” Futterman advanced this story on Twitter with the following statement: “It’s a really strange moment for the Olympic winter sports schedule to begin. All you have to do is everything medical experts have been telling us to avoid.” It’s a really...

Biathlon Doping News Racing

Biathlon Integrity Unit Suspends two Biathletes

FasterSkierSeptember 24, 2020

The Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) announced on Thursday that Russian biathletes Ekaterina Glazyrina and Timofey Lapshin were provisionally suspended. According to the BIU, Lapshin has been competing for Korea since 2017. Both Lapshin and Glazyrina are accused of violating anti-doping rules (ADRV). The evidence used to hand down the provisional suspensions came from information included in the McLaren Report and data from the Moscow Lab’s data (LIMS) handed over to WADA in 2019. The BIU states...

Biathlon Doping News Racing

CAS Ruling Removes Lifetime Ban for Three Russian Biathletes

FasterSkierSeptember 24, 2020

The Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) announced Thursday that three Russian biathletes implicated for doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics had their lifetime bans overturned. The biathletes in question, Olga Vilukhina, Yana Romanova, and Olga Zaitseva were first handed lifetime bans in 2017 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The McLaren Report included information tying the three athletes to doping. The IOC subsequently ruled the three Russians had committed an ADRV, or...

Doping Feature News

Evi Sachenbacher: Sacrificial Lamb on the Doping Altar

Peter MindeAugust 11, 2020

A career ended prematurely, for no reason. During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher failed a doping test. Although the ensuing ban was subsequently reduced from two years to six months, it effectively ended her career. New information seems to confirm that Sachenbacher’s positive drugs test at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi had nothing to do with deliberate doping. Rather, she was used as a sacrificial pawn by...

Doping News Opinion

A Glance at Some Anti-Doping Numbers in Cross-Country Skiing

Jason AlbertMay 8, 2020

A year and more has elapsed since a doping scandal rocked the 2019 cross-country World Championships in Austria. Over that time, we have learned a bit more about what transpired at the micro-level. In the broader picture, those covering doping in sport often scour The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) annual release of a voluminous document titled “Anti-Doping Testing Figures”. The data dump runs hundreds of pages. Looking for figures on the number of tests per...

Doping News

FIS Summaries for Veerpalu, Tammjärv, and Poltoranin Indiciate hGh Use

Jason AlbertApril 8, 2020

On April 8, Estonian news outlet ERR published an article revealing more details about doping by Estonian cross-country skiers Andreas Veerpalu and Karel Tammjärv. The two skiers both previously admitted to autologous blood doping — the process of removing blood from one’s system and re-injecting it at a later time for a performance boost. The doping came to light in 2019 when the two Estonians, Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin, and Austria’s Max Hauke and Dominik...

Doping General News

News Roundup for Feb. 28 – Engadin Canceled

Jason AlbertFebruary 28, 2020

Engadin Canceled: Amidst the whirlwind of February racing, news happens beyond the ski tracks. Here are some notable news threads. It was announced yesterday that the famed Engadin Ski Marathon, to be held on March 8, has been canceled due to concerns related to the coronavirus (also referred to as COVID-19). “The spread of the coronavirus in Europe – with two cases in our vicinity – has left the authorities with no choice but to...

Doping Multimedia News Podcasts The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show (Audio Short): WADA, Russia, and FIS

FasterSkierDecember 20, 2019

To the point: thoughts and opinions on WADA’s decision to ban Russia from major international competitions for four years.

Doping News

More on the Russian Ban

Jason AlbertDecember 10, 2019

Widely reported on Monday was the unanimous vote by WADA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) to ban Russia from specific sport events for the next four years. Russia never tip-toed around its desire to dope on an industrial scale. That much has been documented in an Academy Award winning documentary and the more academic reports cataloging Russian doping misdeeds. Many have claimed Russia suffered a mere hand slap from WADA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its...

Doping News

WADA Declares Four Year Ban on Russia

FasterSkierDecember 9, 2019

In an unanimous vote Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland, WADA’s Executive Committee imposed a four year ban on Russian participation in major international sporting events. This blanket ban includes the 2020 Tokyo and 2022 Beijing Olympics. The list of Russian transgressions is long. According to a press release from WADA on Monday, the tipping point was Russia’s manipulation of the Moscow Lab’s data. That data was to be used to confirm specific doping violations by Russian...

Doping News

WADA’s Compliance Review Committee Recommends Strong Penalties for Russia

Jason AlbertNovember 25, 2019

In a just published press release, WADA has released its Compliance Review Committee’s (CRC) recommended consequences for RUSADA. On December 9, WADA’s Executive committee will decide upon’s RUSADA’s status as a compliant entity. Last week, the Compliance Review Committee suggested RUSADA again be declared non-compliant. Due to a leak of specific aspects of the Compliance Review Committee’s recommendations and sanctions, WADA has decided to publish the sanctions likely to be handed down on December 9....

Doping News

Death, Taxes, and RUSADA Non-Compliance

Jason AlbertNovember 25, 2019

There’s death, taxes, and this: the Russian Anti-Doping is likely to be back on WADA’s non-compliance list. Last week, WADA sent out a press release noting that its Compliance Review Committee had recommend non-compliance for RUSADA. WADA’s Executive Committee will consider the recommendation when it meets on December 9. This real world soap opera continues as athletes around the world seek better structural and legal remedies to clean up sport. The press release states the...

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