Wednesday December 22, 2021
New biathlon world cup winner
Association solves curious doping dilemma fairly
The biathlete Olga Saizewa doped in the World Cup winter 2013/14, was convicted and punished. Due to the sanctions, the ranking in the overall World Cup is shifted in such a way that an innocent athlete could be deprived of her triumph retrospectively. But the association finds another solution.
The Norwegian biathlete Tora Berger can look forward to a second triumph in the overall World Cup with a delay of more than seven years. The IBU World Biathlon Federation declared Berger and the Finn Kaisa Mäkäräinen, who was previously the sole winner, to be the winners of the big crystal ball of the 2013/14 season. The unanimous decision of the IBU is a reaction to the latest ruling by the International Court of Justice (CAS) in the case of the Russian athlete Olga Saizewa.
She was subsequently disqualified for various doping offenses in nine competitions. With a new calculation of points, Berger would then be four points ahead of Mäkäräinen in the final account, according to the original she was still five points behind and thus missed her second success in the overall World Cup. The IBU justified the Solomonic solution with two winners by saying “that clean athletes may not be punished for the doping offenses of others”.
Saizewa had already been sentenced to a lifelong ban by the International Olympic Committee in 2017, but the decision had been partially revised by the CAS after an appeal by the Russian Federation in 2020, the Russian would theoretically have been allowed to start again at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in January 2022 . But now there are new sanctions by the IBU.
There should be a joint award ceremony for both ski hunters as part of a World Cup this winter, and Berger will also receive the lost prize money retrospectively. “It’s a fair and good decision for both of us. I would have felt really bad if Kaisa had to return her crystal ball,” said Berger. Mäkärainen was recently surprised that her overall World Cup victory was suddenly in the balance: “I didn’t even know that something like this was still pending. (…) Nobody takes these moments and feelings away from me. After seven or eight years, I can I don’t even remember all these phrases, “Mäkäräinen was quoted as saying by the Finnish TV broadcaster Yle Sport. Now the 38-year-old was “happy” about the decision. It was the “fairest solution,” she said. All athletes have long since ended their careers.