The head of the investigative department of RUSADA Leonid Ivanov in an interview with commented on his participation in the work on the case of Mordovian walking coach Viktor Chegin.
Chegin in the period from 1995 to 2015 was the head coach of the Olympic Training Center of the Republic of Mordovia in race walking, his students are Sergey Kirdyapkin (deprived of the gold of the 2012 Olympics), Vladimir Kanaykin (deprived of the bronze medal of the 2012 World Cup) and Olga Kaniskina (deprived of silver OI-2012).
– Have you personally met Chegin?
– Many times. From his case, I once started working at RUSADA. It’s not just my merit, the whole team did a mighty job. But that’s when I realized how interesting I was doing something. And eight years later, I feel the same.
– Chegin is a stubborn man. Have you not seen the main source of problems within you?
– At that time, it seems, we underestimated the seriousness of our intentions. I remember the first time I came to Mordovia and I heard laughter on my face: you won’t get anything, they say. However, it was possible to bring the situation to a resolution. Three months later, they proved the presence in the Saransk Academy of prohibited centrifuges for separating blood components and equipment for their storage.
The standard method is to interview athletes, but they were fanatically devoted to Chegin. It was impossible to get any evidence. “I didn’t see it, I don’t know how it got into the body, I have no idea.” Fairy tale stories were made up, and even those in a negative relationship with Chegin were dully silent, fearing the consequences. Or they simply did not want to get involved: Viktor Mikhailovich had great authority in Mordovia, but at that time he was almost omnipotent.
– If a disqualified coach continues to work in his specialty, must he prove his material interest?
– Not.
“But people don’t do it for the love of art, do they?”
– Everything can happen. If a person has given 30-40 years of his life to sport, it is difficult for him to break away from this. Worries that without him everything will crumble and be covered. The same Chegin held a leading position in the formation of Mordovian walkers, but one must admit something else: a powerful selection operated in the republic, based on Soviet principles. They themselves told how they negotiated with doctors and physical education teachers in remote areas to seek out gifted children. At first they are given to running or game types. Walking is a monotonous sight, a child of 7-8 years old may not like it for a long time.
If this started to happen, the next level factor was activated. Walking in Mordovia is one of the strongest social elevators. In 2014, he stayed in a hotel in Saransk and saw how walking heroes were shown continuously on the big screen. Including disqualified, without mentioning it. For a backcountry junior, that’s a huge incentive to rise to the top. As well as foreign cars of Olympic champions in the parking lot of the training center. They themselves are there too, alive, gay, heroines of all the parties, deputies, etc.
The Saransk school is large, the infrastructure is developed. Eight years ago, everything was quite open, but since then there have been fences, cameras. It became difficult for us to work.
– You mentioned selection in the Mordovian hinterland. But it’s good.
– Yes, if not for dozens of disqualified. Chegin is a strong but egocentric specialist. He personally coached top athletes, who in the documents always listed him as the first of five or six coaches. It got to the point that in doping control protocols, instead of their phone number, athletes indicated Cheginsky. That says something.
In 2016, Chegin was banned for life by RUSADA for repeated doping violations.
Source : MatchTV
