Rusada did not test the seven Beijing Olympic medalists at all last year.
At the same time that the International Olympic Committee IOC is working on the return of Russian athletes to international sports competitions, the world is thinking about two big questions.
Is it in any way ethical to include Russia, which is at war in Ukraine, on the competition fields, and if the war ever ends, have the country’s athletes been sufficiently tested for doping during the war?
Norwegian TV2 has now found out the answer to the latter question. The result is not very promising.
TV2 went through all the doping tests commissioned by the Russian anti-doping commission Rusada in 2022 and found several medalists from last winter’s Beijing Olympics that Rusada had not tested at all all year.
They were cross-country skiers Aleksei Chervot too and Ivan Yakimushinbiathletes Maxim Tsvetkov and Eduard Latypovfigure skaters Nikita Katsalapov and As Victoria Sinitsa and a speed skater Sergei Trofimov.
Rusada had not tested the 2021 World Cup medalists in skiing either Gleb Retivyhia and Jana Kirpichenko at all in 2022.
TV2 asked Rusada about it, but did not receive an answer.
As a comparison, TV2 reports on the strict doping testing schedule of Norwegian skiers. When a similar study was done in Norway, for example Therese Johaugia and Johannes Kläboa were tested 20 times during 2019.