Athletics: a doping scandal involving Russian athletes

Recently, the lion's share of Russian athletics medals of the highest standard was for pupils of the famous school of sports walking, based in the capital of Mordovia. The pride of the nation was considered to be the wards of Victor Chegin, who won titles at all world championships and the Olympic Games of the last decade. Young talents literally appeared as mushrooms after the rain, and all sports fans, in addition to enthusiastic responses to the walkers, paid tribute to the talent of an outstanding coach. That is why the last doping scandal in athletics caused such a resonance among the public.

Trouble in public opinion

Many ordinary sports fans saw in the face of the Russian national team walkers a kind of vent, leveling relative failures in other disciplines. An example for imitation, a combination of fragility, persistence and, according to fans, extraordinary diligence Olga Kaniskina. And male walkers always showed an unshakable will in the battle not so much with the rival as with the circumstances that prevented the achievement of the goal.

The Saransk school of sports walking has always been considered a standard of technique and endurance, where an impeccable course was set as an example for Chinese athletes dreaming of dropping the Russian national team from the pedestal. However, the doping scandal in athletics, this year, inflamed, sent the fans of Russian athletes from heaven to earth. Many of the fans expressed frank frustration and complained that they believed unconditionally their idols.

Some walkers often missed the starts

In the sport of higher achievements, especially in disciplines that require incredible endurance, those who do not feel pain in muscles with lactic acid secretion win. Working at the limit, and sometimes beyond the physical possibilities, some athletes often wear out their body so much that they prematurely have to end their professional careers.

Unexpected turn

That is why in 2013, when many Russian top-level walkers refused to participate in the Moscow world championship, citing injuries, no one suspected something was amiss. Soon the leaders of the national team Olga Kaniskina and Valery Borchin announced the end of their sports career, despite the fact that by that time they were not yet thirty. And Vladimir Kanaykin and Sergey Kirdyapkin, although they did not announce the end of their career, but since then, due to health problems, they did not participate in any of the launches. Doping scandal in athletics with the participation of our athletes has opened the veil of the mystery of so many and serious injuries.

How does doping affect the health of an athlete?

Consider the example of the Olympic champion of London Elena Lashmanova, in whose blood the metabolites of a dangerous and potentially deadly chemical substance that has not yet passed the whole cycle of clinical trials are found. So, a Russian can be called a kind of experimental rabbit in the battle of pharmacological companies. However, all of the above athletes also acted under the guidance of one and the same specialist, and no one will give a guarantee that the deadly dope was taken only by Lashmanova. Simply samples were taken at different times. That is why many parents of future potential champions are no longer attracted to such an aesthetic, but dangerous from the point of view of health sport, like athletics. The doping scandal only further exposed all the existing shortcomings and bends in the development of this sport.

The essence of the scandal

In January 2015, the Anti-Doping Committee announced the discovery of a prohibited substance in the blood of five leading Russian walkers. For example, Olga Kaniskina, Valery Borchin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Vladimir Kanaykin and Sergey Bakulin were convicted of illegal use of chemical preparations between July and September 2009, and also from July to November 2011. According to the rules of the international federation, athletes must give awards won at this time, and also pass a disqualification, which depends on the severity of the fault (during initial or repeated detection). Therefore, the doping scandal, in athletics happened, suggests the reluctance of athletes to later resign from the authority of the Olympic champions. This is how statements by Kaniskina and Borchin about the end of their sports career are judged, because the medals of Beijing 2008 and London 2012 turned out to be "clean". But who knows how the war of pharmacology and the Anti-Doping Committee could turn into the eternal race "who's who?"

Controversial statement

Many skeptical people claim that doping is used by all sportsmen performing at the highest level, but they are only being censured by Russians, and then exclusively for political reasons. That's why the next loud doping scandal in athletics broke out. The Russian national team has become only a kind of bargaining chip in political games. However, this controversial statement based on speculation. And if we consider the statistics of detecting doping in the blood of professional athletes, it turns out that Russians find themselves on banned drugs by no means more often than Americans or Englishmen.

And what is the recognition of the athletes of the former German Democratic Republic who told the whole world how the golden rewards of East Germany were forged in the socialist years. Therefore, another scandal in athletics and disqualification of athletes do not seem to be something out of the ordinary. By the way, scandals with the reception of illegal drugs in the "Queen of Sports" happen with an enviable regularity, regardless of the citizenship of the offending athletes.

Chemical doping

Earlier, in the 70th and 80th years of the 20th century scandals with the conviction of athletes in the use of banned steroids and anabolics, which greatly increased endurance in cyclical sports , rattled . First, athletes were given doping tests after the competitions selectively, and the more often positive results were displayed, the more temptations the heads of the Anti-Doping Committee had to introduce an obligatory procedure for passing the test. So, in the 90s, already all the winners of major competitions were obliged to finish the urine for a doping test after the finish. Anti-doping laboratories were not difficult to identify prohibited substances in athletes.

Gene doping

And now in the blood of our walkers they found not steroids and anabolics. That surprised the amazed public, hearing about the next doping scandal in athletics, what kind of substances are these that can be found after several years? Prohibited Substance is a kind of gene doping that can be detected by examining the information of a sportsman's biological passport. That's why we talked about the perennial struggle of pharmacology and laboratories. Physicians are developing more and more new forms of prohibited drugs, and laboratories are trying to find and neutralize them.

Loud recognition

Seeing how the new doping scandal flares up in Russian track and field, the amazed public and the press immediately remembered the sudden recognition of the Olympic champion in the 800 meter run by Maria Savinova. In a documentary film filmed in Germany, the runner openly confessed to using illegal drugs. In addition to the famous runner, other less-famous sportsmen took part in the film, telling about the intricacies of Russian sports of higher achievements. Then the Russian track and field athletics (the doping scandal in it in particular) was considered by German authors in terms of a mass violation of the anti-doping code, often covered by Russian officials. So, according to the authors of the film, officials allowed disqualified athletes to take part in individual competitions. It was told how the authorities allow during the period of disqualification to attend punished athletes at training camps, in addition, they pay all expenses from the treasury. The film mentioned the juggling of some results, false statements of the first persons. And also about the permission to participate in sports structures to those athletes who at one time fell for the use of doping.

Doping scandal in track and field: whose heads will fly in the Russian leadership?

It turns out that with the easy hand of officials, former "unclean" athletes can occupy leadership positions or even occupy a coaching position? If all this is true, then it becomes extremely clear why the scandal with Mordovian walkers was followed by the resignations of the heads of the federation, but not Viktor Chegin. Valentin Balakhnichev (head of the All-Russian Athletics Federation) voluntarily resigned his powers, and head coach of the athletics team Valentin Maslakov resigned, unable to withstand the shame. None of the higher-ranking officials "asked" the coach of Mordovian walkers Viktor Chegin from his post. Probably, he is going to grow a new galaxy of talented stars, only by what methods?

The inability of top management to influence the situation

Thus, athletics (doping scandal played not the least role) revealed the problems of the top sports management, which can not affect the regional federations. Either sports officials turn a blind eye to the state of things. By the way, Valentin Balakhnichev once lamented how difficult it is for him as the head of athletics federation to influence representatives of regions actually engaged in arbitrariness. Well, these are the realities of modern Russian sport, when for medals of supreme dignity our authorities promise gold athletes and their instructors gold mountains. What does not occur in the federations of other countries, where the prize money is sometimes purely symbolic, and the main article of income athletes are advertising campaigns.

"Achievements" of Victor Chegin

Few people know that on account of the trainer of walkers Victor Chegin, in addition to countless medals of the highest standard, already 24 disqualified for doping athletes. Just to this day, more often the representatives of the so-called second echelon, the athletes on the approach to the national team, have been convicted. A new doping scandal in track and field athletics of Russian athletes as a whole may endanger. And if earlier isolated cases with walkers of the second echelon cast shade purely on Russian athletic walking, then the tainted in the last scandal elite blackens the entire track and field area of Russia. Foreign sports stars are already advocating for the removal of Russian athletes from all international competitions. And Victor Chegin meanwhile, despite the ban on coming as a member of the Russian delegation to one of the largest competitions in Zurich, arrives there informally. In addition, he easily gets to the food items of athletes.

Doping scandal in track and field athletics and disqualification of athletes: timing of suspension

What did our eminent walkers receive as punishment for the use of prohibited substances? Olga Kaniskina, who completed her sports career, along with Kirdyapkin and Bakulin, was given 3 years and 2 months of disqualification due to a single case of abnormal tests. Valery Borchin (also retired) was suspended from performances for 8 years. But Vladimir Kanaikin was suspended from the competition for life. Someone has doubts about how honest with their fans Russian athletics? The doping scandal debunked the views of the average citizen about the "purity" of victories and competitive honesty.