Athletistic / Ski racing. In the mid-1990s, the fight against doping was just beginning to gain momentum. At that time, opposition to banned sports pharmacology was truly necessary and was an adequate response to the challenges of world sport at the time. At that time, there was no Russophobic WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency was founded in November 1999), but the IOC, then solely responsible for the fight against doping, itself began to put pressure on in favor of certain Western medicines, by banning their Soviet production. / Russian and Eastern counterparts. The legendary Soviet and Russian skier Lyubov Egorova suffered in this fight.

Egorova from two Olympic Games – Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994 – won 9 (!) medals – 6 gold and three silver. So far, only Norwegian Marit Bjørgen (8) has managed to surpass Egorova’s result in the number of victories at the Winter Olympics. This might not have happened without one thing: the doping disqualification.

Background

In 1994, Lyubov Egorova was the queen not only of cross-country skiing, but of all winter sports. At that time, she was only 28 years old, so everyone was wondering how many gold medals she could win at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano (Japan). However, the first alarm bells rang after the 1994/1995 season. The fact is that due to the birth of Lyubov’s child, she had to miss a whole year of competition, and after that the return to the elite turned out to be an extremely difficult event.

Photo source: Reuters

However, despite all the problems, Lyubov managed to finish the 1995/1996 season in fifth place in the overall World Cup standings and once again forced her rivals and experts to talk about her. The following season, Egorova confidently booked her place in the Russian national team and qualified for the 1997 World Championships, which took place that year in Trondheim (Norway). The start of the 1997 World Cup was inspiring for Egorova: she became 5 km champion with a classic move, ahead of teammate Elena Vyalbe. But a few days later, Egorova was kicked out of the tournament and from the Russian team.

The unfortunate drug

Before the start of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta (USA), the IOC updated the list of banned drugs. One of them turned out to be bromantane. It was immediately clear that this IOC decision hit the Russian team the hardest, because bromantane was invented by Soviet pharmacologists. This medicine was obtained to strengthen the immune system and was prescribed in the USSR even to children. It should be noted that there are no scientifically proven facts about the direct effect of this drug on the athlete’s body, since the substance did not in any way affect the performance results of athletes. However, this had a side effect: bromantane helped mask traces of the use of other banned substances.

During these years, Russian athletes (all post-Soviet) could not quickly adapt and stop using this drug. Nearly 20 years later, a similar thing would happen in the history of meldonium.

It was traces of bromantane that were found in the analyzes of Lyubov Egorova during the victorious 5-kilometer race at the 1997 World Cup. Information about this came two days before the start of the relay. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) immediately disqualifies the Russian, thereby resetting all of her results from this tournament.

Photo source: FLGR

Egorova did not deny her mistake and even refused to open V.’s sample. The Russian directly admitted that she had used bromantane.

– I really tookbut this medicine is notright before a 5k race. At that time, I didn’t know it was forbidden. After all, everyone understands that taking a banned drug right before a race is pure suicide. Neither our coach (of the Russian national team – Rating Athletistic)nor the doctor knew anything about it“, Egorova said at a special press conference.

So, gold in the 5 km race went to another Russian, Elena Vyalba. Vyalbe during this tournament, before the relay, would have had time to win the 15 and 10 km races, and therefore the third gold medal that suddenly came to him should have pleased him. However, this destabilized the future president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation (FLGR). Due to the news regarding Egorova, the entire Russian team was under the close attention of the 1997 World Cup organizers, the media and the IOC. Due to this stress, all Russian skiers were hostile to Egorova’s act, believing that she had trapped the entire team with her behavior. Shortly after the incident, all members of the Russian team demanded that Egorova be sent home immediately.

After Egorova left the national team, Vyalbe could not resist and expressed his emotions in an interview. She, on her own initiative, spoke to reporters, publicly apologizing for her former teammate’s actions. This also helped the Russian team win the relay (at the finish, Vyalbe “brought” 16 seconds to Norway). Note that during the final race (a 30 km marathon in classic style), Elena Valerievna won her fifth gold medal since the 1997 World Cup, becoming the absolute world champion.

Photo source: FIS

But Lyubov Egorova has few positive memories of these events. She was disqualified for two years for doping, which deprived the Russian of any hope of competing in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. During the 1998/9999 season, she returned after disqualification and even managed to get on the podium (second place in the relay). She did not officially announce her retirement until 2003.

After completing her career, Lyubov Egorova began working at the National State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Health named after PF Lesgaft, where she got the position of vice-rector and also became involved in political activities. Her sporting merits are still undeniable and allow her to be considered one of the greatest skiers of the last century. The only downside is that she and Elena Vyalbe still don’t communicate.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic



Athletistic