Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP | AP
MOSCOW — Russian race walker Alexander Ivanov was stripped of his 2013 world championship title after being found guilty of doping, the country’s track federation said Friday.
Ivanov was handed a three-year ban after blood data in his biological passport showed signs of doping. The ban was backdated to May 2, 2017, when Ivanov was first suspended pending a full hearing. Russia dominated race walking at the Olympics and world championships for more than a decade before a wave of doping cases brought disqualification for more than 30 athletes and a life ban for head coach Viktor Chegin. Ivanov was one of the last members of the team without a ban. His 2013 world championship gold will go to Chen Ding of China. Ivanov will also lose a 2014 European Championship silver medal.
Russia originally topped the medals table on home soil at the 2013 world championships, but has now been stripped of all but three of its seven gold medals. Besides Ivanov, hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko, high jumper Svetlana Shkolina and the women’s 4×400-meter relay team have been disqualified for various doping offenses. Of the three gold medals remaining, one was won by walker Elena Lashmanova, who was banned after failing a doping test less than a year after the championships.
Ski doping video
VIENNA — State prosecutors in Innsbruck have charged an Austrian policeman with malpractice for leaking a police video showing a skier apparently in the middle of a blood transfusion during the doping raid at last month’s Nordic skiing world championships in Seefeld. Prosecutors say the policeman has confessed to sharing the video to a private group on a messaging app. The footage soon surfaced on various websites and social media pages. The policeman, who has not been identified in accordance with Austrian privacy laws, faces up to three years in prison if found guilty. The video, which lasts a few seconds, shows Austrian cross-country skier Max Hauke apparently caught with a needle in his arm while a police investigator stands in the background.
Hauke was one of five skiers among a group of nine people arrested during the Feb. 28 raids at the worlds in Seefeld and in Erfurt, Germany. The arrests included a German doctor, Mark Schmidt, who allegedly led an international blood doping network. Since the five skiers were arrested shortly before a race, another Estonian skier has admitted to doping and two Austrian cyclists who raced in the Tour de France have been suspended. German prosecutors said last week that as many as 21 athletes from five sports may have been part of the doping ring.