“I am ready to meet Thomas Bach on his territory and give him the Olympic medal if they prove my guilt” – Zubkov

Olympic medalist in bobsleigh Alexander Zubkov said on that he was ready to meet International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach and return his Olympic gold medal if it was proven that he had doped.

At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the bobsledder won gold medals in the two-man and four-man competitions; subsequently, the IOC commission accused the athlete of doping and his results were annulled. In 2018, the Moscow City Court found Zubkov not guilty and allowed him to keep his titles and presidential scholarship. The athlete did not return his gold medal. Zubkov won silver at the 2006 Olympics in fours and bronze at the 2010 Olympics in doubles; he is also world champion and multiple European champion.

— After the Olympic Games, I was at the head of the federation for three years. And the entire global bobsleigh community understood that at that time it was a political order. When I went to the World Cups, they told me: we still think you are an Olympic champion. They said they didn’t believe this happened to our country.

I am ready to meet Thomas Bach on his territory. If he proves to me that I’m guilty. I am ready to award Olympic medals if there is proof. But that didn’t happen,” Zubkov said on .

The 2014 Olympic skeleton champion, Alexander Tretyakov, also accused of doping but later acquitted, announced that he had tried to “break his life”.

“Of course, it’s unpleasant when they make up something about you, tell stories about you. This is how they try to ruin your life, your sports career. They not only wanted to take away the medal, but also disqualify me from the sport for life. There is no such punishment in the WADA code, that was very interesting (laughs). Of course, I believed in some kind of justice, in the possibility of proving that everything is not so bad in this world, ”Tretyakov noted.