Biathletes must refund price money to be able to comeback after doping ban

[neineinei]

According to the Norwegian newspaper VG, which is quoting the russian website sports.ru, the biathletes Ekaterina Iourieva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko will have to refund the price money they won during the time between they left their positive doping tests in Östersund early December 2008 and the anouncement of the findings 13 February 2009, to be able to compete again. The information comes from International Biathlon Union Secretary General Nicole Resch. For Iourieva the amount is ca. 62 000 Euro, for Akhatova ca. 28 000 EURO and for Yaroshenko ca. 10 000 EURO.


http://www.vg.no/sport/ski/skiskyting/artikkel.php?artid=10033880

Must cyclists refund their price money in a similar manner, or is this up to the various sports federations and unions?

 

[Christian]

I know certain teams make their riders pay back twice their salary or something like that. There was a guy on Katusha who refused to agree to that, so he ended up not being able to race, I forgot his name though.

Good thing they're doing this in biathlon though, it's one of the dirtiest (yet also most exciting) sports. Especially eastern european athletes seem to get busted.

 

[shouldawouldacoulda]

Must cyclists refund their price money in a similar manner, or is this up to the various sports federations and unions?

No - not in a similar manner, but there is a model... Cyclists don't get their prize money until all in-competition anti-doping tests have been cleared by the lab. The organizer hangs onto the prize money until they get the all clear from the UCI. If their is a positive in the race, distributing the prize money can drag on for a long long time.

ie the prize money for the 2006 TDF wasn't sent until the bitter end of Floyd Landis' case and it caused quite the broohaha with teams waiting for that money. Especially since many riders were no longer part of the teams they were on in 2006 - and in some cases the teams no longer existed (phonak)!!

Additionally prize money is sent to the team's management company, not individual riders. It's typical that teams don't get money for 3-6 months after a normal race. Sometimes it can drag on for over a year. The UCI rules state prizes are to be distributed within 3 months - however, since the UCI and organizers are at the mercy of the labs conducting tests on their schedule and timelines it can often drag on.

In the recent case of Kirk O'Bee he was required to repay all prize money from all events he rode in from 2004(?) to when he was provisionally suspended in 2009. However these kinds of retroactive case decisions the specifics of the penalty are at the discretion of the arbitration panel. Good luck to anyone who ever hopes to get any prize from a case like O'Bee's.

I like the Biathlon model. It would be interesting if a similar rule were created in cycling... my feeling is it would effectively result in lifetime bans - at almost any level. Most cyclists are nearly broke after a doping suspension and I can't imagine any would be able to repay prize money.

The thing that would complicate this model though is the way in which prize money is divided among the team in cycling. It would make creating this kind of rule very difficult - there would be a lot of protesting.

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

The thing that would complicate this model though is the way in which prize money is divided among the team in cycling. It would make creating this kind of rule very difficult - there would be a lot of protesting.

Might create another layer of internal pressure within the team to ensure doping doesn't occur...

 

[TERMINATOR]

According to the Norwegian newspaper VG, which is quoting the russian website sports.ru, the biathletes Ekaterina Iourieva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko will have to refund the price money they won during the time between they left their positive doping tests in Östersund early December 2008 and the anouncement of the findings 13 February 2009, to be able to compete again. The information comes from International Biathlon Union Secretary General Nicole Resch. For Iourieva the amount is ca. 62 000 Euro, for Akhatova ca. 28 000 EURO and for Yaroshenko ca. 10 000 EURO.


http://www.vg.no/sport/ski/skiskyting/artikkel.php?artid=10033880

Must cyclists refund their price money in a similar manner, or is this up to the various sports federations and unions?

There are no unions in cycling.

Second, the athletes must return the money because under the rules of ANY sport and the WADA Code, if you are disqualified from a race you are not entitled to keep any money for any placing.