Skip to main content

A look at the 6 Russian athletes affected by doping decision

  • Author:
  • Publish date:

MOSCOW (AP) The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday extended doping punishments for six Russian athletes after ruling that earlier sanctions imposed by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency had wrongly allowed them to keep results they should have lost.

Here are details of the athletes and their punishments:

Sergei Kirdyapkin - Banned in January 2015 for doping, but the Russian anti-doping agency refused to annul his results for the period of the 2012 London Olympics, allowing him to keep a gold medal in the men's 50k walk. The medal is now due to pass to Australia's Jared Tallent. Kirdypakin is eligible to compete again and has said he wants to race in the Olympics in August if the Russian team is allowed to compete.

Olga Kaniskina - While her Olympic gold medal in the women's 20k walk from 2008 is safe, Kaniskina now loses her silver medal from the 2012 Games, which passes to China's Qieyang Shenjie. Kaniskina had already been stripped of two gold medals from the 2009 and 2011 world championships.

Yulia Zaripova - The only one of the six who is not a racewalker, Zaripova was retrospectively disqualified last year from the 2012 Olympic women's 3,000m steeplechase, when she won gold. The CAS decision closes a window in her ban which had allowed her to keep a 2011 world championship gold medal. Tunisia's Habiba Ghribi won silver in that race and is now in line for an upgrade.

Sergei Bakulin - Once one of the world's top racewalkers, he loses his 50k gold medal from the 2011 world championships, plus a fifth-place finish from the 2012 Olympics. The 2011 gold goes to fellow Russian Denis Nizhegorodov, one of the few elite Russian walkers who has never been handed a doping ban.

Valery Borchin - Already stripped of world championship gold in the 20k walk in 2009 and 2011 under the previous RUSADA ruling, the CAS decision means he now loses more results from minor competitions. His 2008 Olympic gold medal is not affected.

Vladimir Kanaikin - The CAS ruling means he loses a bronze medal from the 2012 World Racewalking Cup, but his life ban for a second offense is cut to eight years for unspecified reasons.