“The investigation went on for two years”: IBU suspended 9 Kazakhstani biathletes due to suspicion of doping

"Doping cases may be opened against them"

The official announcement about the suspension of nine biathletes from Kazakhstan appeared on the IBU website on Thursday.

Galina Vishnevskaya, Alina Raikova, Daria Klimina-Usanova, Olga Poltoranina, Anna Kistanova, Jan Savitsky, Maxim Brown, Anton Pantov and Vasily Podkorytov were suspected of being suspicious.

The strongest Kazakhstani biathletes were temporarily suspended. In particular, Vishnevskaya for several years was a regular participant in the World Cup, and last season even won the medal for the first time.

The IBU noted that they had collected a sufficient amount of evidence indicating violations by these athletes, but presented them with an opportunity to justify themselves.

“We have suspended nine members of the national team of Kazakhstan, we believe that the violation of anti-doping rules has already been proven. “We have gathered enough evidence to find them guilty,” NRK quotes IBU director of communications Christian Winler.

- The investigation began during the 2017 World Cup in Hochfilzen. It was delayed, so the results have appeared only now. Now we are waiting for the explanations of the athletes themselves. They have the opportunity to present their own position. After that, the IBU will decide whether to annul the decision to dismiss. If Kazakhstan’s biathletes fail to convince the IBU, then doping cases may be opened against them. ”

In the Biathlon Union of Kazakhstan, careful in the comments.

“At the moment, the team of 12 athletes is in the Swedish Idre and is preparing to speak at the first stage of the IBU Cup, which is scheduled to start on November 29. Here came four athletes who are listed: Galina Vishnevskaya, Daria Klimina, Maxim Brown and Anton Pantov. According to the IBU ruling, while the above biathletes are undergoing a trial on this matter, they are temporarily suspended from the competition. The remaining eight athletes will fully participate in the first and subsequent stages of the IBU Cup and the World Cup, ”the organization’s website quotes President of the SBC Yermek Kizatov.

“There have never been any violations in the team”

From 2015 to April 2018, the national team of Kazakhstan was headed by Russian expert Valery Polkhovsky. The specialist said that his team’s anti-doping rules had never been violated.

“Last year we had a search in Austria, we fulfilled all the necessary police requirements. Every athlete, trainer and member of the staff has confirmation that law enforcement agencies have no complaints about them. No further information is available. During the search we did not find anything prohibited. This is all incomprehensible to me. A year earlier there was a reason - everyone wrote that someone was throwing something at a gas station. Apparently, this situation has provoked interest in what the team is doing, ”- quotes Polkhovsky Sport-Express.

The coach expressed confidence that the SBC will defend its athletes, and also said that during the summer gatherings, the national team regularly held anti-doping events.

“There has never been a violation both on the part of the athletes and on the part of the coaches and management,” says Polkhovsky.

However, not everyone is sure about the “cleanliness” of the coach himself. For example, the ex-president of the Russian Biathlon Union Alexander Tikhonov harshly criticized Polkhovsky.

“Tikhonov is always right! After all, I Polkhovsky in 2007 kicked out with a bang from the Russian team. Then, at the meeting of the Olympic Committee, I said that the day would come when we would disgrace the whole world. Disgraced. Polkhovsky and we did the same in secret, secretly. I have no idea if he gave doping to Kazakhstan biathletes or not, but where there is a trace of Polkhovsky, such things are happening, ”the Championship quotes Tikhonov.

Otherwise, this situation in the world of biathlon was held in reserve. For example, the celebrated Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen emphasized that we are talking only about suspicions, and not about specific accusations.

“The list includes names that are well known to professional athletes, but there are also quite unexpected names. This story demonstrates how the IBU is working to combat doping, because the nine Kazakhstanis were banned by the IBU, and not by an outside organization. Their reputation was no worse than that of other countries. But in relation to the team there were suspicions, police raids were conducted. Let's see what facts and evidence will be discovered. When a large number of biathletes are suspended, the thought arises that this is a system. But, as I said, while we are talking only about suspicions. It is important to understand this, ”TV2 quotes Bjoerndalen.

Alarm bells

However, as already mentioned, questions to Kazakhstan biathletes at law enforcement agencies have arisen for a long time.

So, in 2017, on the eve of the World Championships in Hochfilzen, the police searched the hotel of the national team. It was reported that the athletes were found suspicious ampoules, syringes and medications. However, all the doping tests of Kazakhstan’s representatives turned out to be negative.

A year later, the situation repeated itself, and the clients of Polkhovsky had problems already in Italy. This time, the police visited the team’s location during the World Cup stage in Antholz. The guards again searched for illicit drugs, but found nothing.

“On Saturday morning, I was awakened by the police, presented a warrant to search the rooms where our athletes and coaches are located, and said that they received a signal that someone in our team could be engaged in the storage and distribution of prohibited pharmacological preparations,” Polkhovsky quotes. R-Sport ".

At the same time, the IBU announced the start of an anti-doping investigation against the national team of Kazakhstan, which eventually led to the suspension of 9 athletes.