The Kazakhstan National Biathlon Teamstated in a press release on Wednesday. “Since the investigations of the Criminal Intelligence Service Austria are still ongoing with regard to the evaluation of material found, the IBU reserves the right for any further disciplinary action based on any possible findings by the Austrian State Attorney at a later time.” In a press conference after the announcement was made, the Kazakh team claimed to be vindicated by the test results....
Austrian police raided the lodgings of Kazakhstan’s national biathlon team outside of Hochfilzen, Austria, on Thursday morning. The Kazakh team is there to compete at World Championships, where they finished 11th in the opening competition, a mixed relay, later in the day. “Numerous medical devices and medications were seized,” the Criminal Intelligence Service of Austria wrote in a statement according to the BBC. “They found in the room of our doctor some medicine. But according to...
Citing poor air quality which irritated airways, a Norwegian team doctor says he provided competitors with asthma medication at Junior and U23 World Championships in Romania last season. But American and Canadian competitors and coaches do not remember having such problems, and expressed surprise that such medications were being given to young athletes with no medical history of asthma.
Just 2 percent of IOC members come from a snow sports background, and one of those two - biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen - skipped the vote for who should host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Between this imbalance and the fact that IOC members are no longer allowed to visit bid cities, the financial might and huge consumer market of China won out over other factors in the decision-making process.
With a week to go until the IOC members vote on whether to award the 2022 Olympic Games to Beijing or Almaty, a leading human rights nonprofit asserts that the IOC has no tools with which to enforce their vague mandate of “human dignity”.
With a strong presentation to IOC members, confident answers to nagging questions, and in-person testimony from none other than the Prime Minister, Almaty made up some of the gap to Beijing in the race for 2022 Winter Olympic hosting rights. There's still hope to award medals in the land of Vladimir Smirnov. Voting is in late July.
The IOC Executive Board meets in Lausanne this week, and then all IOC members will have the chance to hear from the organizing committees of the Almaty and Beijing bids for the 2022 Winter Games. Members will vote in July. How are the bids shaking out, and what's going on in the Olympic movement? Read on.
Anchorage's Matt Pauli served as the FIS Technical Delegate for Junior and U23 World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in early February. He reports back that though the local committee was hardworking and accommodating of challenges with snowpack, the venue was brand new - and not, he believes, ideal to host an Olympic Games. Luckily, the Soldatskoe venue where he worked at Asian Winter Games in 2011 is a good alternative.
Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt (Rocky Mountain Racers) didn't have a great start, but she held off a charging Russian to finish 12th in the 15 k skiathlon at U23 World Championships. She believes she accomplished something else, too: potentially earning a place on Canada's team to senior World Championships in Falun.
Scott Patterson followed up his 13th place in the 15 k skate with a 15th place in the 30 k skiathlon at Under-23 World Championships - a solid showing, according to coaches, but by his own assessment missing the results goals he had set for himself. U.S. teammate Paddy Caldwell placed 20th, and Joanne Reid led the American women in 25th.
With several men on the U.S. team aiming for top-15 results or better on Thursday, two of them did so and three finished in the top 20. "This male U23 group is the future of US Skiing and it is a blessing just to be a part of it," Northern Michigan senior Kyle Bratrud stated.
A junior world champion in ski orienteering, Barbro Kvåle added a U23 World Championships title to her list of accomplishments on Thursday with a victory in the women's 10 k freestyle. Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt of Rocky Mountain Racers tallied 17th, Cendrine Browne (CNEPH) was 23rd, and Joanne Reid was the top American woman in 25th.
Last year in his Junior World Championships debut, Thomas O’Harra placed 54th in the freestyle sprint. The 18-year-old APU skier placed 14th on Tuesday in the opening race of 2015 Junior Worlds in Almaty, Kazakhstan -- the 1.3-kilometer classic sprint -- and three Canadian women made the quarterfinals as well.
Kazakh star Alexey Poltoranin already started working with Andrus Veerpalu last season. But he's now going one step farther, distancing himself from the Kazakh federation by moving to Estonia and working with famed coach Mati Alavar and three Estonian training partners. After disappointment in Sochi, he's eyeing the 2018 Games.
The U.S. Ski Team and National Nordic Foundation are looking for applicants to staff the 2015 Junior World Ski Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, as well as the U18 trip in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. Please see the two press releases below.
Just a few meters ahead coming into the homestretch, Ola Vigen Hattestad stayed ahead and outlunged Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan by a couple centimeters on Sunday, giving Norway I the victory as Kazakhstan placed second and Norway II finished third.
A team sprint win by Kazakhs Denis Volotka and Nikolay Chebotko was not what thousands of face-painted, flag-clad Canadians came to see Friday - but it was what they got.
FasterSkier tipped ‘Polto’, as he is affectionately known around the office, as the man to watch. The young Kazakh did not disappoint, as bagging a silver medal in the sprint during the Kuusamo mini-tour, before falling to 15th in the overall Tour standings. The following weekend in Davos, Switzerland, he Vladimir Smirnov? We here at FasterSkier aren’t willing to call it quite yet, but we’re convinced he has the skills to be pretty darn successful....