Germany's 27-year-old sprint specialist Denise Herrmann made a big announcement on Wednesday: she's going to be a biathlete. "The switch to a new discipline will be a big challenge, I am aware of that, but I am confident that I can do it with diligence, courage, and determination!" Herrmann wrote.
Herbal supplements and micronutrient vitamins are largely unregulated and may in fact contain substances prohibited by WADA. But a new study also shows that they cause thousands of emergency room visits per year in the U.S.
The 2014 Olympics in Sochi were an unmitigated disaster for German cross country skiing and biathlon. We look back on why, using our own observations and a 235-page Germany Olympic committee analysis of the country's performance in Sochi. With problems identified, the question becomes: what about now?
Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle appealed the IBU's 2-year ban for testing positive for a prohibited stimulant, which she argued was ingested accidentally in a supplement. The Court of Arbitration for sport agreed, saying that a six-month suspension was sufficient. Six months is up and the star can return to competition.
Despite being handed a two-year ban at age 33, Germany's Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle isn't throwing in the towel. Rather, she's seeking a three-month ban instead so she can repair her image and retire on a high note.
Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle had three of her nine supplements - recommended by an experienced nutritionist - tested for banned substances. She read the ingredient labels carefully and googled their names with the phrase "doping". But the IBU rejected the idea of accidental ingestion and slapped her with the same 2-year ban that a Russian using EPO received on the same day. Is that fair?
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.
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.
Russia skied a consistent and fairly unremarkable race to win the biathlon World Cup 4 x 6 k relay. But the biggest story was Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, whose aggressive skiing and near-perfect shooting took Germany from 18th to 1st on the second leg. Was her mid-race comeback a metaphor for her career, now that the Olympic skier has switched to biathlon?
Take a multi-time World Champion, a speed demon who has improved enough on the range to win World Cups - and then add a junior racer and an Olympic gold medalist skier who recently turned biathlete. It's not the usual formula, but it got Germany a win over Ukraine and Norway in the women's biathlon relay in Sochi today.
Olympic gold medalist Claudia Nystad has announced she has stepped down from professional cross-country skiing. Nystad’s career marked a very succesful period for the German Ski Association, as she captured not only five Olympic medals but also five from World Championships. Eventually, the 32-year-old felt her triumph at the Olympic Games in Vancouver turn into another sensation. “The Games in Vancouver were a highlight of my career,” said Claudia Nystad. “I’ve been thinking a lot...
Whistler, British Columbia – Pouring rain, heavy snow, back to pouring rain, classic Whistler weather, and no one was more happy than Justyna Kowalczyk. She plowed her way through the muck to earn the first Polish gold in Olympic cross-country ski history. Kowalczyk’s Olympics to date had hardly been poor. She won the silver in the sprint, bronze in the pursuit, and skied well in the 15km, and has made no bones about the fact...
The prolonged, brutal physical demands of the team sprint make the event a fickle friend. Just ask Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag. After blowing the doors off the eight other teams in their semifinal, the Swedish women came into the gold-medal round as an irresistible force. But they ran head on into the immovable object of Claudia Nystad and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, a pair of veteran German women without the speed for the first round, but...