Doping

The Russian anti -doping agency (Rusada) disqualified five representatives of sports walking.

The Russian anti -doping agency (Rusada) disqualified five representatives of sports walking. Olympic champions Olga Kaniskin, Sergey Kirdyapkin and Valery Borchin, world champion Sergey Bakulin and the silver medalist of the World Cup Vladimir Kanaykin were punished.

All violations of the mentioned athletes relate to the period from June 2009 to September 2012. Nah will be canceled by all the results shown by them in different adversarial periods. Kaniskin, Kirdyapkin and Bakulin were removed from sports for three years and two months, Valery Borchin for eight years, and Vladimir Kanaykin - for life.

Of course, this scandal is one of the largest in Russian sports history. It is enough to recall, first of all, the fact that since 2002, not a single Olympiad-neither summer nor winter-did not do without a doping scandal associated with violations committed by Russian athletes. But besides, this is far from the first scandal associated with the famous center of sports walking Viktor Chegin in Mordovia. The center for a long time was considered a leader in the world, and Chegin himself was recognized as a recognized leader in this sport. But around his students there have long been culu -war conversations about not very honest methods of their preparation.

Suspicions about the athletes that have now been punished when none of them took part in the World Cup in Moscow in 2013. Four of them (except Bakulin) withdrew from the competition literally before the starts - supposedly due to health problems. None of them officially participated in the starts since then.

In mid-2014, the Olympic champion of London-2012 Elena Lashmanova was disqualified for doping. This was the 20th case among the pupils of Chegin, after which the All-Russian Athletics Federation (VFLA) decided to investigate the investigation of the activities of its center. As a result, Chegin was not included in the official delegation for the 2014 European Championship, going there as a private person.

And already in January of this year, the Italian edition of Marcia del Mondo published pictures from the Winter (December) Championship of Mordovia in Saransk. They can see that Elena Lashmanova won these competitions, although there was no name in the protocol. After that, there was evidence that not only Lashmanov participated in the Mordovia championship, but also disqualified Sergey Bakulin and Ekaterina Medvedeva! According to the rules of the World Anti -Doping Agency (Vada) , if the athlete participates in the competition, being disqualified, his results are canceled, and disqualification begins to count again from the moment of the last start.

That is, the scandal with the pupils of the Center of Victor Chegin clearly did not become a surprise to the Russian sports authorities. VFLA and RUSADA announced statements that say that the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) warned of the problems of five Russian walkers punished in January 2015 in January 2015. In June 2014, WFLA handed over documents to Rusada to investigate numerous doping services in sports walking.

This is what is said about this in the statement of the head of the WFLA Valentina Balakhnichev:

"In this situation, the WFLA should state that in our work, the work of the national team and constituent entities of the Russian Federation, serious mistakes were made that were harmful to Russian athletics. The federation never motivated, did not encourage and did not propose to use doping. We did not always act systematically and consistently and are currently reaping the fruits of the irresponsibility of a number of specialists. We must unconditionally respond to shortcomings to the shortcomings of the shortcomings of the shortcomings. Our work, indicated by the Ministry of Sports of Russia, and conduct the necessary structural changes. "

The scandal with the pupils of the center of Viktor Chegin, the surprise for the Russian sports authorities clearly did not become

After that, Balakhnichev said that in connection with the scandalous disqualification of Russian walkers, he was ready to leave his post : "In this case, my resignation from the post of president of the Athletics Federation is determined by the needs of the federation. If there is a need for my resignation, I will make this decision. If there is a benefit."

It is unlikely that one of the “defendants” of the conflict Olga Kaniskina, made to her in one of the Russian sports newspapers: “There will be no comments. There will be no comments. The leadership. And the leadership is me!” The subtlety is that Kaniskina is now holding a position ... the head of the Mordovian Sports Walking Center - that is, actually works on the site of Viktor Chegin himself.

The head coach of the Russian national athletics team Valentin Maslakov expressed his bewilderment about the incident:

“I admit, I’m shocked by the decision. I undoubtedly be sure to fight doping, but it is impossible to turn the result of this struggle into a show scandal that discredits all Russian athletics. Look at the dynamics of doping revelations in Russian light athletics. In the last two years they have been minimized. This indicates our tough positions and measures taken to prevent cases of application Doping.

Here are a few more comments.

Vice President of the All-Russian Athletics Federation Tatyana Lebedeva :

“You can’t put all the eggs in one basket, we had a Chuvash walking school, and Chelyabinskaya. And it turned out that the center was created in Mordovia, and everything was spinning around one person. We were eliminated, all the best in walking was in a single center. I believe that this method is a mistake and federation and ministries of sports. It turned out that we destroyed other cities where there was a school of walking.”

Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko :

"The Ministry of Sports of Russia was aware of the investigation, which was an active phase in the summer of 2014. The five wallets disqualified as a result of this investigation once again handed us" Hello from the past. "However, we cannot do not disturb what is happening in the All -Russian Athletics Federation. We have already asked the leaders of VFL to restore order in our economy. The current situation is underway. Fent from our state anti -doping policy, for the construction of which we did a lot.

The experts responsible for athletics at the center of sports training of the national teams of Russia and the regional leaders of the Sports of Mordovia must also be responsible for the incident. As for the center of Olympic training in sports walking in Saransk, there was a need to translate it under the direct control of the Russian Ministry of Sports. ”

An outstanding hockey player in the past, now Senator Vyacheslav Fetisov :

"People know that they can take medals from them, this is a blow to the image, and still take doping. Probably, you need to force them to return premium, including apartments and cars."

Fetisov also recalled that doping tests are stored for ten years, and if a second analysis shows in the test the presence of prohibited drugs, during this period of athletes can be accused of violating the rules. In this regard, the senator suggested that premium for victory can not be issued immediately, but in ten years, or put them to pension funds. These initiatives will be discussed at a meeting of the Expert Council under the Federation Council.

We briefly summarize the above statements: the centralization and “vertical” in sports need to be canceled, the premium cannot be handed premium for 10 years, but to translate all the centers for the training of athletes in sports, as the minister said, “under direct control of the Russian Ministry of Sports”.

The last remark looks clear anachronism. In Russia, two head organizations are engaged in the organization of sports: the Olympic Committee of Russia and the Ministry of Sports. In theory, the sport of the highest achievements is the work of public organizations, that is, federations in sports, which are united by the OCD. Mass sport, that is, physical education, is the case of the Ministry of Sports, which, according to the Charter of the International Olympic Committee, has no right to intervene in the affairs of public organizations. But intervenes - and frankly demands to translate under his jurisdiction, say, the Mordovian center for sports walking.

Let's leave this at the discretion of the IOC. But the issue of doping will be resolved by Vada - the International Anti -Doping Agency. By the way, the fact that Mordovian walkers are disqualified by the Russian anti -doping agency, without waiting for large -scale sanctions from Wada, is very significant. Apparently, these could follow in the very near future, and Rusada repaid the situation. But the question is not closed: Wada will still make a decision on the Olympic medals of three punished athletes, and if they are deprived of them, another serious blow will be inflicted on the reputation of Russian sports.