December 23, 2016 – Earlier today FIS provisionally suspended six Russian cross-country skiers linked to doping violations during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics while yesterday the IBU held a special Extraordinary Executive board meeting to announce two Russian biathletes have also been provisionally suspended.

(l-r): Alexander Legkov (RUS) and Maxim Vylegzhanin (RUS) at the finish line © Nordic Focus

These steps are the direct result of the McLaren Report 2, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which suggested as many as 1,000 athletes could be involved in Russia’s massive doping scandal of which 28 Nordic athletes were highlighted by the International Olympic Committee. The IBU (International Biathlon Union) has 31 biathletes listed within the pages of McLaren’s scathing report.

While the six Russian cross-country skiers appear to have tested positive at the Olympics, the majority of cases under investigation by the IOC appear to have occurred during other events.

As previously reported Expressen based in Sweden discovered a coding system used in the McLaren Report to identify athletes being investigated and their findings pointed to top Russian skiers Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, and Nikita Kriukov.

While not officially named Ski-Nordique.net used the same coding system to identify and list the six Russians xc skiers serving the provisional suspension as Legkov, Vylegzhanin, Evgeny Belov, Alexey Petukhov, Julia Ivanova and Yevgenia Shapovalove – and provided a link to the spreadsheet that correlates the coding system to the athletes.

The Russian website championat.com has also listed the 6 skiers reporting that, “… according to confirmed sources in the Russian Ministry of Sports and the Russian XC Ski Federation, the Russians that have been provisionally suspended are Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Evgeny Belov, Alexei Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova, and Yulia Ivanova due to the presence of foreign substances in their doping samples.”

According to a report in Langren.com Ivanova confirmed to Russian news agency TASS that she’s been suspended. As yet the two biathletes remain unnamed and apparently are not related to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The Russian XC Ski Federation issued an official release as well confirming that six athletes are under investigation while claiming “The Russia Cross-country Skiing Federation once again underlines its zero tolerance policy towards doping, is a champion of fair and equal play in sports, and counts on objectiveness of the current investigation.”

Neither FIS nor the Russian XC Ski Federation have indicated the skiers in question and SkiTrax has not verified the published names. Russian XC Ski Federation President, Elena Vialbe, claims the athletes were not doping.

In light of these developments, the FIS XC Ski World Cup finals scheduled to take place in Tyumen, Russia, in March 2017 will be relocated to a new venue not yet announced. Meanwhile the IBU is apparently considering to move the 2021 Biathlon World Championships out of Russia.

Coupled with this news is a recent headline in The Guardian that Anti-Doping Organizations are frustrated with IOC President Thomas Bach who is said to have sidestepped a meeting the organizations are keen to have.

Ski Noridique here.

Expressen Report here.

IBU Release here.

FIS Statement here.

Russian Ski Federation here

Championat here.

Anti-Doping vs Bach here.