Now it could soon be official: With legal help, the German biathletes will become Olympic relay champions in 2014 after all.
Ten years after the Winter Olympics in Sochi, former biathletes Erik Lesser, Daniel Böhm, Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp will soon be able to celebrate belated relay gold. The International Biathlon Federation (IBU) and its Integrity Unit, which is responsible for these cases, announced that the appeal by Russian Yevgeny Ustyugov against his doping ban and the annulment of his competition results from August 27, 2013 until his resignation in 2014, had been rejected by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
In this case, the German quartet would retroactively move up from silver to gold if the International Olympic Committee applies its usual practice.
“That is fairness. Because anyone who cheats does not deserve to have a gold medal and call themselves an Olympic champion,” Peiffer told the German Press Agency. “But we will never get back the emotions of a relay victory at the Olympics, which is something very special. You cannot undo a wrong because there is always something that sticks,” added the 37-year-old.
Doping tests manipulated in the control laboratory?
On February 22, 2014, the German ski hunters were beaten by the Russians by just 3.5 seconds in a thrilling relay race in Sochi, when Schempp narrowly lost out to Ustyugow in the final sprint. “We won’t experience the same emotional rollercoaster ride as we did back then. But if you have Olympic gold on your sporting resume, it’s a childhood dream,” Schempp told the dpa, adding: “It’s an award and confirmation that we put in a very good performance in Sochi.”
The world association had already banned Ustyugov in 2020. The IOC then annulled the Russian relay result from Sochi and has not included a gold medal winner from the race in its statistics since then. The IBU now ranks the Germans first in its results list.
In October 2020, the CAS confirmed the ruling of the world association. Ustyugov, now 39, who retired in 2014 after winning the Olympics and who still denies doping, appealed against the ruling. The IBU assumes that the Russians manipulated data in the Moscow control laboratory in the wake of the scandal surrounding Russian state doping at the home games in Sochi.
Source: Stern
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