Doping in XC skiing

[python]

yourieva is mentioned a lot too.

as to zaitseva, i would not pick her as she is from pichler's group who claimed to personally keep watch on his gals haemoglobin almost weekly. also, even if no one will be surprised by doping on their main team, they must have been screened with a particular diligence to avoid a political scandal in the home olympics.

then again, zaitseva's performance was a bit strange this season - she missed some races, was below par speed wise and shooting wise and, i find it particularly curious, she, so it was reported, flat out refused to run the last leg in the relays she was entered...


i think tomorrow, we will know a lot more, as the national federations are ceratinly informed and the leaks will follow to protect some reputations or - opposite - to soil others...particularly someone like pichlers who has no friends there.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

yourieva is mentioned a lot too.

as to zaitseva, i would not pick her as she is from pichler's group who claimed to personally keep watch on his gals haemoglobin almost weekly. also, even if no one will be surprised by doping on their main team, they must have been screened with a particular diligence to avoid a political scandal in the home olympics.

then again, zaitseva's performance was a bit strange this season - she missed some races, was below par speed wise and shooting wise and, i find it particularly curious, she, so it was reported, flat out refused to run the last leg in the relays she was entered...


i think tomorrow, we will know a lot more, as the national federations are ceratinly informed and the leaks will follow to protect some reputations or - opposite - to soil others...particularly someone like pichlers who has no friends there.

I think we already knew Pichler was on his way out, since the Russians hired a new head women's coach or something like that just the other day, clear they simply don't want him anymore. He didn't mesh with the other coaches, he wasn't the miracle cure they saw him as a couple of years ago, and the Russian girls are still noticeably lacking in ski speed (plus Pichler has made a bunch of statements that will not please the Russian authorities, after all saying something like "my girls would have to dope to ski with Domracheva/Mäkäräinen/Gössner et al" immediately draws suspicion to any Russian woman whose ski speed improves) with the extremely tough Sochi trails not suiting the Russian team.

However Zaitseva refusing to run leg 4 wouldn't be so surprising if she hadn't been doing that leg for years. There are a lot of top names in the sport who hate anchoring. Andi Birnbacher, for example, always runs leg 2 for Germany. He has never liked the final leg. Olga Vilukhina is another who is on the record as hating the anchor role, but has had to with Zaitseva not wanting to do it either and pulling seniority.

 

[Kokoso]

then again, zaitseva's performance was a bit strange this season - she missed some races, was below par speed wise and shooting wise

This reminds me Svendsen in some races. But not anymore of course.

 

[dirkprovin]

According to this piece, the two Russians are Iourieva and Staryk. Iourieva was overlooked for Olympic selection but Staryk amongst those named. Russian officials obviously confirming nothing. No name for the Lithuanian as yet. Given the lack of depth and his vast rise in performance level, Rastorguevs would seen the most likely candidate but ..... who knows.

http://en.rsport.ru/olympics/20140129/718755023.html

 

[TomasC]

Sorry, doublepost for some reason.

 

[TomasC]

According to this piece, the two Russians are Iourieva and Staryk. Iourieva was overlooked for Olympic selection but Staryk amongst those named. Russian officials obviously confirming nothing. No name for the Lithuanian as yet. Given the lack of depth and his vast rise in performance level, Rastorguevs would seen the most likely candidate but ..... who knows.

http://en.rsport.ru/olympics/20140129/718755023.html

Rastorgujevs is Latvian, isn't he? So not him thankfully, if the information is right.
Also as we all know it would be 2nd positive for Iourieva.
Let's wait for official information, but now it seems it's not about Zaitseva, thank god.

 

[kingjr]

Well I think we've all been waiting for Starykh to get caught so no surprises there.

About Rastorgujevs (he's Latvian as TomasC said but anyway), he is 25 years old and he was fast already 3 years ago and has steadily improved since then, so much to the "vast" rise in performance.
That doesn't mean he has to be clean of course.

 

[ToreBear]

Thanks for the link dirkprovin!

This made much more sense to me than one of them being Zaitseva.

She could possibly have something coming from 2006. That would not be as surprising.

This seems to be recent results, and not related to the retesting.

I wonder why it's so quiet about those?

Hopefully it's just that they are waiting for the Olympics to be over, so it doesn't dominate the media picture.

As for the Russians, I think both of those women are with one of the Russian teams. I think there are 2 russian and one "german" team?

Does anyone know if they were on the same team?

On the Lithuanian. Hadn't had time to look into it. I'm surprised Libertine hasn't come up with some candidates, he/she seems to have good detail knowledge on biathlon.

Anything Libertine?

 

[kingjr]

I'd put my money on Kaukenas.

 

[neineinei]

The Lithuanian hadn't been selected for the Olympics according to VG.

The biathletes tested positive at the World Cup races in Annecy (12–15 December) and Oberhof (3–5 January). The B samples haven't been tested yet.

According to IBU president Anders Besseberg IBU had been targeting these bitathletes "for a long time".

http://www.vg.no/sport/ski/skiskyting/artikkel.php?artid=10121409

He said the same when Yaroshenko, Iourieva and Albina Akhatova were caught in 2009.

If Emil feels we are testing less now than before it may be due to a period we had to test many athletes often as we were trying to catch three Russian athletes. We couldn't test only those few very often. To not spread suspicion we had to test natons like Norway and Sweden often too, says Besseberg to Adressavisa about the hunt which ended with Dmitry Yaroshenko, Ekaterina Iourieva and Albina Akhatova getting punished.

http://www.nrk.no/trondelag/hegle-svendsen-ikke-dopingtestet-1.7898304

(Besseberg said this after Hegle Svendsen in October 2011 expressed concerns that he hadn't been tested for seven months.)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Svendsen said he was tested 7 times over a 14 day period recently, leading to Jan. 12. Now, obviously a couple of those will be as a race winner at Oberhof, but that's the kind of amount of testing we're looking at.

I thought there was the note that the testing had been between the two World Cups, so OOC testing had caught at least one of the three, and one of them had tested positive twice. Starykh's sudden emergence from the cold meant she was a logical suspect immediately; a few years ago she had some good results I hadn't known about, under her birth name of Maksimova (looking her up on German wikipedia this becomes clear with several Junior World Championships medals from 2005-6), but according to the IBU's profile page all but one of her top 30 finishes have been this season; the only exception being when she appeared in the ersatz Russian team at Holmenkollen last year, in a team where the Russians rested Vilukhina, Zaitseva, Glazyrina, Shumilova, Zagoruiko and Romanova, and was 21st in the windswept pursuit. To then make a sudden and violent improvement from one of the better athletes on the fringes of the Russian team to the best Russian in the World Cup full stop, and in an Olympic year (an Olympics in Russia no less), was pushing it a bit, although I will happily concede my point if there is any explanation for the underperforming (e.g. Gössner and Soukalová both made huge steps up last season, but the former had had the previous season's preparation ruined by surgery for intestinal knotting and the latter had missed much of the previous season due to mononucleosis, and in 2010-11 Gössner had been top 15 of the World Cup and Soukalová had had some promising showings late in the season) - I am simply not aware of any, and her period of not breaking through is several years in length as well.

For the Lithuanians, that as noted above it has been implied it is not a Lithuanian Olympic athlete would appear to absolve Diana Rasimovičiūtė and Tomas Kaukėnas, and if the reports about the Russians are correct it has to be a man. Which leaves two athletes if the news about the tests being at Annecy and Oberhof are correct.

Karol Dombrovski is 22, and finished 93rd in the Annecy sprint with 2 misses.
Karolis Zlatkauskas is 28, and recorded a DNS in the Annecy sprint, and finished 80th in the Oberhof sprint with 5 misses. Natalija Kočergina is the only other Lithuanian to start in either event.

 

[dirkprovin]

Sorry for the mix-up re Rastorguevs & Latvia/Lithuania. Had just thought his significant step-up in results this season might have put him in the frame. Like many, am happy that Zaitseva isn't in the picture. If anything, her performances this season (esp re ski speed) have been her usual level .... maybe anno domini starting to take effect ?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sorry for the mix-up re Rastorguevs & Latvia/Lithuania. Had just thought his significant step-up in results this season might have put him in the frame. Like many, am happy that Zaitseva isn't in the picture. If anything, her performances this season (esp re ski speed) have been her usual level .... maybe anno domini starting to take effect ?

Objection, your honour! Of Rastorgujevs' 11 top 20 results, there is a perfect split of 5 this season and 5 last season, with one 20th place back in 2010-11. In fact, you could argue his big standout result was last year at Pokljuka when in the pursuit he came from 38th to finish in the top 10. This year he came from 28th to 4th in Oberhof, so it's not that much of a difference. He was also 4th in the Individual at Sochi last season. He also led the relay at the handover in Ruhpolding last season, in addition to Annecy this year. Rastorgujevs' improvement is not sudden, he's just inched forward in the pack enough that he's started to be picked up by the cameras and commentators a bit more now.

As for the Russians, I think both of those women are with one of the Russian teams. I think there are 2 russian and one "german" team?

Does anyone know if they were on the same team?

I've found that info now. The "German" team, by which I assume you mean Pichler's team, is Ekaterina Glazyrina, Iana Romanova, Ekaterina Shumilova, Svetlana Sleptsova and Olga Zaitseva. Ekaterina Iourieva and Irina Starykh were both in Vladimir Korol'kevich's group.

Two interesting points to raise from this.

1) The Russians recently changed their structure from being 3 teams with Pichler in charge overall, to 3 teams with Korol'kevich in charge overall.

2) Korol'kevich moved to coach Russia's women in the offseason, having previously been in charge of the Ukrainian women, who had their best season to date last year. Mariya Panfilova and Olga Abramova are two Russians who changed to Ukrainian nationality last year.

 

[ToreBear]

I've found that info now. The "German" team, by which I assume you mean Pichler's team, is Ekaterina Glazyrina, Iana Romanova, Ekaterina Shumilova, Svetlana Sleptsova and Olga Zaitseva. Ekaterina Iourieva and Irina Starykh were both in Vladimir Korol'kevich's group.

Two interesting points to raise from this.

1) The Russians recently changed their structure from being 3 teams with Pichler in charge overall, to 3 teams with Korol'kevich in charge overall.

2) Korol'kevich moved to coach Russia's women in the offseason, having previously been in charge of the Ukrainian women, who had their best season to date last year. Mariya Panfilova and Olga Abramova are two Russians who changed to Ukrainian nationality last year.

Thanks Libertine, your knowledge of the details are much apreciated!

Now the question is if Korol'kevich is involved in the doping. From my understanding of the situation in Russia, there have come strict orders from the top for there to be no doping. If he is in the team next season, it would indicate to me that those above him thought he was not involved. Time will show.

Ah the Ukrainians, yes they got my nose twitching last year....

As for Svendsens testing, we don't know who is responsible. It could be the ADN(Anti-Doping Norway), IBU or the IOC.

I would be surprised if IBU tested Svendsen that much since that would mean high risk athletes get less attention(money is finite).

According to this article in Norwegian:
http://www.nrk.no/sport/solheim-kritisk-til-wadas-krav-1.11502681

- Norwegian Anti doping have conducted 380 tests since November, with most of the testing being done on Olympic athletes.
- The IOC Starts their testing today. (sounds a bit late to me, as well as to the head of ADN).

It's an interesting article, an he is very critical of Wada not holding organisations responsible when their work is not good enough.

He is also critical of the IOC's role on Wada's board.

Anyway, given the information in Dranges book one could assume that the ADN tests much more than anybody else.

So most of this intense testing, could be ADN, and not IBU(except for the in comp stuff). I also remember last year EBH said he was tested 4-5 times in a week or something, so it would not surprise me if this is ADN as well.

Of course some of these 380 tests might be done at the request of either IBU or the IOC/WADA, but thats not the impression I got from the article.

 

[valkus]

Everybody now blames Dmitrievs for these positives. (Dmitriev jr was fiancé/husband of Akhatova before her positive in 2009 they even have a kid if I'm not wrong)

Apparently after 2009 they were out of biathlon, but have been brought again into the team.

So we see the results of their work. This case is just an illustration of:

1) there are no past dopers
2) Always look for the doc.

 

[wansteadimp]

Starykh confirmed as testing positive, and has been withdrawn from the Olympic squad.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/feedarticle/11172822

 

[Libertine Seguros]

RSport confirms Starykh's replacement will be Galina Nechkasova, which is a bit of a gamble - she's only done the Antholz World Cup, and the rest of the season has been on the IBU Cup, and has no World Cup experience from previous seasons to count on either. Nazarova has been equally consistent but with more experience and generally better ski times.

 

[ToreBear]

Everybody now blames Dmitrievs for these positives. (Dmitriev jr was fiancé/husband of Akhatova before her positive in 2009 they even have a kid if I'm not wrong)

Apparently after 2009 they were out of biathlon, but have been brought again into the team.

So we see the results of their work. This case is just an illustration of:

1) there are no past dopers
2) Always look for the doc.

Who is Dimirievs? Sorry if im asking a stupid question.

Starykh confirmed as testing positive, and has been withdrawn from the Olympic squad.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/feedarticle/11172822

Thanks for the link. Thats a good press release. No denial and no confirmation. But reading between the lines it's more of an understanding that the gig is up. The question is who wrote it. Her or the federation?

Well no matter whom, i like it.

 

[Shardi]

After todays 10km classic stage it seems that Bjoergen's mishaps at the Norwegian championships were just misshaps - she destroyed the competition. Form peak just in time for the Olympics.

The russian ladies were pretty anonymous today, kind of expected them to be "on the rise" so to speak, but it will also be interesting to see how Legkov does this afternoon since he has been performing worse than last year so far this season.

If the russians (as expected) are on a big Olympics program, there should really be some results coming out of their candidates today, one week ahead of the games.

 

[melkemugg]

After todays 10km classic stage it seems that Bjoergen's mishaps at the Norwegian championships were just misshaps - she destroyed the competition. Form peak just in time for the Olympics.

The russian ladies were pretty anonymous today, kind of expected them to be "on the rise" so to speak, but it will also be interesting to see how Legkov does this afternoon since he has been performing worse than last year so far this season.

If the russians (as expected) are on a big Olympics program, there should really be some results coming out of their candidates today, one week ahead of the games.

It would be more embarrassing for Putin that everyone got caught cheating under his olympics so im sure hes taken care of it.

 

[python]

The russian ladies were pretty anonymous today, kind of expected them to be "on the rise" so to speak, but it will also be interesting to see how Legkov does this afternoon since he has been performing worse than last year so far this season.

If the russians (as expected) are on a big Olympics program, there should really be some results coming out of their candidates today, one week ahead of the games.

i agree with the 1st statement. the fact that they were not a factor today, though, does not mean they will show anything in sochi, except perhaps a team relay or team sprint. their lady's xc sport has been thrown back several years by doping scandals, thus, they simply did not do as good a job finding true talents as in the past because of reliance on chemistry. there is good reason to believe they are not as doped as in the past, at least not on as much blood doping.

the man's team though, is a different matter, particularly their sprint team. this is why i dont agree with your second sentence...if they are on a sophisticated doping program, they will not be showing much today except legkov, imo. the reason being, that the sochi 15 k is almost 2 weeks away - the 14th of february - too early for a blood bag or too late for a epo.

 

[roundabout]

Did they have the best team present? I think Tchekaleva is already in Sochi, maybe some others as well.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Tomas Kaukėnas and Karol Dombrovski are racing in the European Championships in Nové Město na Moravé this week, but the third Lithuanian is Rokas Suškavicius so I think we can extrapolate from this that the third biathlete involved in the positive tests was Karolis Zlatkauskas.

 

[ToreBear]

After todays 10km classic stage it seems that Bjoergen's mishaps at the Norwegian championships were just misshaps - she destroyed the competition. Form peak just in time for the Olympics.

The russian ladies were pretty anonymous today, kind of expected them to be "on the rise" so to speak, but it will also be interesting to see how Legkov does this afternoon since he has been performing worse than last year so far this season.

If the russians (as expected) are on a big Olympics program, there should really be some results coming out of their candidates today, one week ahead of the games.

She had bad skis at the championships. IIRC she said her form was good.

I don't expect the Russians to be on any program. Orders from above and athletes speaking out a few years ago.

But I could be wrong.

Tomas Kaukėnas and Karol Dombrovski are racing in the European Championships in Nové Město na Moravé this week, but the third Lithuanian is Rokas Suškavicius so I think we can extrapolate from this that the third biathlete involved in the positive tests was Karolis Zlatkauskas.

Thanks. Never heard of him before.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

She had bad skis at the championships. IIRC she said her form was good.

I don't expect the Russians to be on any program. Orders from above and athletes speaking out a few years ago.

But I could be wrong.





Thanks. Never heard of him before.

Little reason to, he's 28 and the only time he's qualified for a pursuit in the World Cup was Kontiolahti 2012. Looking at his profile at the IBU he had a handful of decent results on the IBU Cup in 2010-11, but has never threatened to step up; suspect he either doped or increased the doping in the aim of getting to go to the Olympics (he went to Torino as a 20 year old but missed Vancouver) once it seemed Lithuania would only run 1 athlete per gender.