Suspects beyond suspicion

Mass removal from the competition is a signal that the Russian biathlon is rapidly turning into a toxic sport

The last years of the life of the Russian biathlon are increasingly leading to a disappointing conclusion: they ceased to stimulate themselves with the help of prohibited funds - they stopped winning. There is no direct evidence of the total use of doping and there will be no indirect ones. The number of disqualifications, mostly loud, has long exceeded 20. After 2014, the exposure concerned mainly the recent past, causing disputes and courts, disqualification and appeal. Meanwhile, the results continued to fall, and this season the team thoroughly updated the anti -record for the number of wicked starts at the World Cup.

Against the general joyless background, at the end of December, the news flew about a fresh serious violation: the Union of Biathlonists of Russia, on the basis of an investigation into the Russian anti -doping agency, was forced to disqualify the Krasnoyarsk biathlete Victoria Konovalov for four years. The base is a positive doping test for anabolic steroid oxandrolon.

A loud case, throwing a shadow on all efforts of the SBR to restore the status of a permanent member of the International Biathlon Union, which was lost three years ago.

If the drama with Victoria Konovalova had not happened, then no one would have paid attention to a very recent story. It occurred directly on New Year's Eve, and after the holiday, a two -time medalist of the world skiing championships, and now Biathlon coach Nikolai Pankratov looked at the protocols of popular traditional All -Russian Biathlon competitions Izhevsk Rifle. The meticulous ex-novel found that 12 juniors and 21 junior had removed from two final sprint races. In both cases, this happened after adult athletes were subjected to doping control. Pankratova was surprised that the appearance of doping officers coincided with a massive refusal to participate at once on more than three dozen young athletes. The questioned sacramental question was whether something bad is hidden behind all this, it was necessary to react somehow.

On this, the open part of the story ends and begins closed. Of course, all this is by no means a festive hype by the SBR, but the vice president of the organization Alexei Nedin reacted promptly-with a promise to understand all the main points. At the same time, Nedin expressed gratitude for the alerted vigilance of Pankratov, who "can be considered an expert practitioner in this matter." At the beginning of the tenths, Pankratov himself departed a two -year disqualification for trying to carry prohibited medical supplies across the Swiss border, but in this case the official of the official at the address of the former offender was not very appropriate.

Be that as it may, I had to understand. Express investigation of the SBR led to the expected results.

The President of the organization Viktor Maygurov explained in detail to the public, which was actually the reason for the refusals, but it looked like an attempt to quickly close the matter.

The investigation was limited to consultations with the heads of the national teams, including those whose refuseniks were most. Six athletes starred from the team of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, five juniors from the national team of the Tyumen region. It is worth noting that Khanty-Mansiysk and Tyumen are the country's most biathlon regions, in the authority of the SBR, with the developed international infrastructure, leading trainers, the influx of promising athletes.

After the consultations, it turned out that the fault of a very extraordinary situation was ... an unsuccessful calendar and a changed format of the Izhevsk Rifle, which was influenced by objective circumstances and subjective. Due to the coronavirus, the deadlines for the world championship among juniors moved, so the Izhevsk Rifle has lost its usual status of qualifying competitions. At the same time, in connection with the sealing Izhevka program, the sprint races brought out the command offset. Therefore, the main refusal occurred because the last races did not affect anything, and the athletes who began the preparation after the coronavirus later, had to give rest-so that they would better prepare for qualifying competitions in Rybinsk.

In fact, the Maygurov gave the explanation guilty of himself, promising to continue to carefully treat the problems with the calendar and format. The public, however, did not calm down. The questions really remained: if the iconic competitions have lost the status, and the athletes are really tired, then why was it at all to come to the last races? If we arrived, they came up, and health allowed to start, then why did they decide to skip an important, but not the most difficult test start to skill the form? And why did the mass refusal coincided with the visit of doping officers?

Representatives of Rusad also promised to figure it out in the most thorough way. But it seems that time has already been lost. According to Maygurov, the shooting athletes of the location of the teams did not leave and were available for doping control. Representatives of the Russad of the cards do not disclose, saying only that they were aware of the incident and took the appropriate steps. But, judging by indirect signs, additional testing as a reaction to a non-standard situation into the plans of doping officers on the eve of the holidays, perhaps, was not part of.

After a similar two -year ago, Irkutsk History, with a clums of the start of regional competitions of 36 athletes, was also a lot of noise, but it all ended. In fact, if the athletes have already parted, then catching them one in two to three weeks and troublesome, and by and large it is useless. That is, there is smoke, and the fire has already gone out, if it was at all.

And there is enough smoke, to be honest. It has long been known that it is the most difficult to control what is happening in youth and junior sports even at the federal level, not to mention the regional level. The lower you go down, the darker, and what is happening there with doping, there are few specifics, if at all. One thing is clear: coaches seeking in any way, even at the cost of health and reputation, are not transferred to people to bring their students. It is difficult to catch someone’s hand at the back level, but I want to win: it is a scholarships, premium, and stability. The exit to the adult level of such "overfed" children often turns out to be complete fiasco.

Of course, it is almost impossible to prove the presence of a criminal component in the Izhevsk History, but at least an attempt was necessary. Otherwise, the disqualification of Victoria Konovalova will be only the first swallow. And the signal that nothing with us with doping was essentially changed, it has already become.