Ten years after the games in Sochi German biathlon relay team on the brink of belated Olympic gold

Now it could soon be official: With legal help, the German biathletes will become 2014 Olympic relay champions after all.

Ten years after the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the German former biathletes Erik Lesser, Daniel Böhm, Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp will soon be able to celebrate a belated relay gold medal. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) and its Integrity Unit, which is responsible for these cases, announced that Russian Yevgeny Ustyugov's appeal against his doping ban and the annulment of his competition results from August 27, 2013 until his retirement in 2014 had been rejected by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport Cas.

In this case, the German quartet would retroactively advance from silver to gold if the International Olympic Committee applies the usual practice.

"This is fair play. Because anyone who cheats doesn't deserve to have a gold medal and call themselves Olympic champions," Peiffer told the German Press Agency. "But we won't get back the emotions of winning the relay at the Olympics, which is something very special. You can't undo wrongs, because there's always something that sticks," added the 37-year-old.

Doping tests manipulated in the control laboratory?

On February 22, 2014, the German skiers were only beaten by the Russians by 3.5 seconds in a thrilling relay race in Sochi, when Schempp narrowly lost out to Anton Schipulin in the final sprint. "We won't experience that emotional rollercoaster ride like back then again. But when you have Olympic gold in your sporting CV, it's a childhood dream," Schempp told dpa and Erik Lesser added: "It seems that a team wasn't on the right track, and then I think it's only fair that a good decision is made ten years later."

The world federation had already banned Ustyugov in 2020. The IOC subsequently annulled the Russian relay result from Sochi and has not included any gold medal winners from the race in its statistics since then. The IBU now ranks the Germans first in its list of results.

In October 2020, the Cas confirmed the decision of the world federation. The now 39-year-old Ustyugov, who resigned in 2014 after winning the Olympics and denies doping to this day, appealed against this decision. The IBU assumes that the Russians manipulated data in the Moscow control laboratory in the course of the scandal surrounding state doping at the home games in Sochi.

For this reason, the IBU had already initiated proceedings in November 2018 against Ustyugov and 2010 Olympic relay champion Svetlana Sleptsova, among others, who has now also failed with her appeal before the Cas.

Second appeal proceedings before the Cas

A further appeal decision by the Cas against Ustyugov is still pending. In 2020, the Integrity Unit, which acts independently of the world federation, charged him with a doping violation due to anomalies in his biological blood passport in the period between January 2010 and February 2014.

According to Ustyugov's lawyers, his excessively high haemoglobin levels were due to a genetic anomaly that his parents already had. This period also includes the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, where Ustyugov won gold in the mass start and bronze in the relay.

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