When the world’s best cross-country skiers stand on the start line for the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle, the final race of the 2011 World Ski Championships in Oslo, they will do so alongside Sergey Shiriaev, a Russian athlete who served a two-year doping ban between 2007 and 2009 and continues to work with controversial coach Anatoly Tchepalov. Tchepalov is currently serving a ban of his own for connections with athletes involved with doping: a four-year sanction...
The Russian Ski Association (FLGR) has received high praise over the last two months for its work to combat performance-enhancing drug use. After being fined more than $180,000 this spring, the country escaped a second round of penalties at meetings of the International Ski Federation (FIS) in early November, thanks to its anti-doping efforts—which included changes in officials and coaches affiliated with scandals. “We know they are on the right track,” Gian Franco Kasper, the...