McLaren Report – FasterSkier.com

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...

Doping News

IBU Brings Doping Cases Against Four Russian Biathletes

FasterSkierDecember 4, 2018

On November 30, The International Biathlon Union (IBU) As recently as September, the IBU voted to rebuff the RBU’s application for full membership.

Doping General News

WADA and RUSADA: The Conditions Moving Forward

Jason AlbertSeptember 22, 2018

After the announcement that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee, which WADA refers to in short at the ExCo, voted 9-2 in favor of reinstating the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on Thursday, it released a statement describing what it considers a conditional reinstatement. As mentioned in an previous FasterSkier article, Russia has not fulfilled two outstanding provisions laid out in WADA’s “roadmap” for reinstatement. In its most recent public statement on the matter, also published on...

Doping General News

WADA Executive Committee Votes to Reinstate RUSADA

Jason AlbertSeptember 20, 2018

A full Olympic quad after Sochi, nothing remains irrefutably clean. Off the radar then on again, the Sochi doping scandal has sent recent tremors through the sports world. In a quick summary, after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the host nation was handed sanctions for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics that affected some of its athletes. A total ban from Rio was not enacted despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommending the contrary. Russian athletes...

Interviews Multimedia Nordic Nation Podcasts

Nordic Nation: The Voice of Reason Episode With Chelsea Little

Jason AlbertJuly 2, 2018

Here’s a link to that piece. Most recently, she drilled down into the

Doping General News Olympics Racing World Cup

CAS’s Legkov Reasoning: Finds Rodchenkov’s Testimony Hearsay, Marks on Bottle Not Relevant

Chelsea LittleApril 23, 2018

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has posted the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned that ban for Legkov and seven other cross-country skiers. At the time, they did not release many details about how they had come to their decisions. Adding to the confusion was the fact that CAS had upheld the disqualifications for some other athletes, including three biathletes. On Monday, CAS released the details behind its decision in Legkov’s case. In...

Doping Opinion

More Than Medals: Clean Sport in the ‘Icarus’ Era (Op-Ed)

FasterSkierMarch 21, 2018

Editor’s Note: The following thoroughly cited opinion piece, prompted by the 2017 ‘Icarus’ documentary, was written by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier who spent the 2017/2018 race season training abroad with Team Asker in Norway. Zechel is a regular contributor at FasterSkier, with his ongoing series: “Closing the Gap”. *** February 23, 2014 Sochi: a home Olympics and the opportunity of a lifetime. Russia, despite being one of the strongest skiing nations in the...

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What’s Happening as Russia’s Sochi Scandal Winds Down: An Editorial

Chelsea LittleFebruary 9, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, cleared 28 Russian athletes of doping charges. Many people seemed shocked by this development. The athletes had been disqualified from the 2014 Games by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Commission. This was after more than 18 months of buildup in which the world learnt of systematic manipulation of the anti-doping process by the Russian state security apparatus at those Olympics. I was both shocked, and not shocked. When all...

Doping General News Olympics Racing World Cup

Legkov and Seven Other Skiers’ Doping Bans Overturned by CAS (Updated)

Chelsea LittleFebruary 1, 2018

((Update: In accordance with the CAS decision outlined below, thewrote in a press release. “With respect to these 28 athletes, the appeals are upheld, the sanctions annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 are reinstated.” The athletes whose results will be reinstated are: 50 k gold medalist and relay silver medalist Alexander Legkov 50 k silver medalist, team sprint and relay silver medalist Maxim Vylegzhanin, also fourth in the 30 k skiathlon relay...

Doping General News Olympics Racing

Russian Olympians Announced: 12 Skiers, Four Biathletes to PyeongChang

Chelsea LittleJanuary 26, 2018

Earlier this week it was announced that cross-country skier Sergey Ustiugov and biathlete Anton Shipulin were among the Russian athletes excluded from the 2018 Olympic Games coming up in PyeongChang, South Korea, next month. The question arose: just who would be representing Russia? The list of the 169 athletes on the “Olympic Athletes of Russia” team (which is not supposed to be confused with the Russian Olympic Team, which has been banned) has now been...

Biathlon Doping General News Olympics Racing

Rodchenkov Testimony in Zaitseva Case Includes Entire Biathlon Team: Doping Before and After Sochi

Chelsea LittleDecember 23, 2017

On Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) posted the reasoned decision from its Disciplinary Commission, in which Russian biathlete Olga Zaitseva was disqualified from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Zaitseva’s disqualification had been announced previously, but this is the first full-length decision presenting the evidence for the disqualification of any biathlete. Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova have also been suspended, but the Oswald Commission’s full decisions for their cases have not yet been released....

Biathlon General News Olympics Racing

Swedish Coach Pichler Won’t Be Allowed at Olympics Due to Previous Work with Russian Biathlon

Chelsea LittleDecember 21, 2017

Wolfgang Pichler, the coach of the Swedish women’s biathlon team, will not be allowed to attend the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The reason? He previously worked with Russian athletes who have now been convicted of doping violations. The German rose to prominence as a coach when he led the Swedish team during the time of Magdalena Forsberg, coaching Anna Carin Zidek and Helena Eckholm as well. But he then left the team and...

Biathlon Doping News Olympics Racing World Cup

Many Battles Still To Be Fought in Russia Doping Saga

Chelsea LittleDecember 6, 2017

Yesterday, 2014 FIS Anti-Doping Rules, which went into effect on January 1, 2014 (before the Olympics started that February), state that the federation can take action against national ski teams, such as barring athletes from competition or assessing fines, if there is evidence of extensive doping within the team. Article 12.3.1 of the rules state that such action may be taken when “Four or more violations of these Anti-Doping Rules… are committed by Athletes or...

Biathlon Doping News Olympics Racing

Oberhofer: Belated Sochi Bronze has Bitter Aftertaste, But ‘Better Late Than Never’

Harald ZimmerDecember 4, 2017

With news of were not redacted in one of the documents. “11 months ago there were already these rumors, and several members of the media contacted me about that,” Oberhofer wrote. “[Recently] I was contacted by Giovanni Malagó, President of the Italian National Olympic Committee, who informed me that Vilukhina had been banned and removed from the list of results.” Oberhofer isn’t sure whether there will be some medal ceremony arranged for the one she...

Biathlon General News Olympics Racing

Czech Women Receive News of Olympic Medal, Then Online Abuse and Threats

Chelsea LittleNovember 29, 2017

(Editor’s note: This article contains explicit language.) On Monday, the International Olympic Committee posted decisions were puzzlingly not redacted from an evidence document in the McLaren report, reacted. Gabriela Koukalová posted on her Facebook page about how frustrated she was with the scandal. A translated version reads, “I know that you all know… I mean about our Olympic medal from Sochi for the women’s relay, which we are going to receive with almost four years of delay....

Olympics Racing World Cup

IOC Posts Decision: Rodchenkov Swapped Out Legkov’s Sample Night After Olympic 50 k Gold

Chelsea LittleNovember 27, 2017

At long last, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published its full decision explaining its reasons for disqualifying Russian cross-country skier Alexander Legkov from the 2014 Olympics and banning him from all future Games. In it: a description of how a second laboratory independently confirmed a finding from the McLaren Report that two of Legkov’s urine sample bottles from Sochi had been tampered with. The decision also reveals that Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow anti-doping...

Doping News Olympics Racing World Cup

Four More Russian Skiers, Vylegzhanin Included, Disqualified From 2014 Olympics

Chelsea LittleNovember 9, 2017

After were identified in Valbe said. With Legkov’s disqualification, Russia had already lost a gold medal in the 50 k and a silver medal in the 4 x 10 k relay. Vylegzhanin had finished second in the 50 k, but with him now disqualified as well, there could be a substantial medal re-allocation. Third-place Ilia Chernousov, also from Russia but not implicated the McLaren report, would stand to gain gold. Fourth-place Martin Johnsrud Sundby of...

Doping News Olympics Racing World Cup

IOC Sanctions Legkov, Belov for Doping in Sochi, Rules Out of 2018 Olympics (Updated x3)

Chelsea LittleNovember 1, 2017

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ruled that Russian cross-country skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov doped at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The IOC Disciplinary Commission headed by Denis Oswald, referred to as the Oswald Commission, issued a decision today stating that the two athletes had violated Article 2 of the anti-doping rules for Sochi. As a result, Legkov’s gold medal in the 50-kilometer freestyle mass start, the Russian men’s silver medal in the...

Doping News Olympics

Ski World Reacts to Legkov, Belov Punishment (Updated)

Alex KochonNovember 1, 2017

This article has been updated to include comments from Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey as told to on Wednesday. *** As the news spreads of the told Norway’s Nettavisen, according to a translation. “It’s my only Olympic medal. It is clear I will take it.” In an interview with Wieschemann firm stated in its press release on Wednesday. “[It] mocks the declaration of the President of the IOC, Dr. Thomas Bach, to decide only on...

Doping General Interviews News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

Brennan on Call with IOC and WADA: ‘It Feels Like They’re Dragging Their Feet’

Chelsea LittleOctober 29, 2017

As they may leave the organization and form their own union. Against this backdrop, the leadership of the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) organized a conference call earlier this month with athlete representatives from different national and international sports federations around the world. “It was actually a very last minute thing,” Brennan, U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s cross-country athlete representative, said in an interview. “It was unclear whether that was intentional or not, but...

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