The legendary high jump Holm had already counted the news that leaked this summer when the World Athletics-controlled Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) began investigating Silnov for doping crimes. Today, AIU made formal accusations of steroid doping (Turinabol) against the Russian and three of his national teammates. They will be heard by the arbitration court Cas in Lausanne, but no date has been set.
- I feel that this was a news in June and I'm thinking about what's new now, says Holm about the spontaneous feeling.
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The IOK has a limitation period of ten years around competition results and Holm has no hopes of getting a bronze medal from 2008.
- I have no hopes for a Beijing medal because it's been so long ago but it's good that people who cheat go there, he says.
Did you have any suspicion of Silnov when you were competing against him?
- I don't want to suspect people that I'm competing against. You have to go in and think that you compete on equal terms. Then I know that I have competed against people who have been doped, but I have never thought about it during competitions.
"He took the microphone and thanked me"Did you have any relationship or contact with Silnov during your active period?
- No, not so much, but he was still one of those who felt like a good guy, always nice and polite and greeted without being particularly good in English. I remember my last race in Stuttgart (World Athletics Final 2008) when he won and I was second. When I was thanked to the audience, he took the microphone and tried to thank me for stumbling English for everything I had done, which was not his job at all. He felt like a good guy back then, Holm remembers.
Silnov broke through as a 21-year-old in the winter of 2006 and won during the late summer European Championships in Gothenburg, a competition where Holm, 43 today, was third.
Russian athletics is internationally suspended, where individuals can apply for an exemption, since 2015.