The Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) and the International Biathlon Union (IBU) welcome the decision issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the Biological Passport case of former athlete Mr Evgeny Ustyugov. The CAS Appeals Division has upheld the findings of the Anti-Doping Division (ADD) of CAS, which determined that Mr Ustyugov committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) based on anomalies identified in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP).

Following this finding, Mr Ustyugov has been sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility. Additionally, all competitive results achieved by Mr Ustyugov between 24 January 2010, and his retirement at end of the 2013/2014 season are invalidated, including any associated medals, points and prizes. This includes results achieved at the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010, where he had been awarded the gold medal in the mass start and the bronze in the men’s relay. Mr Ustyugov may appeal this decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT). However, such appeals are only permitted on narrow procedural grounds.

Meanwhile, Mr Ustyugov has appealed another recent and separate CAS decision to the SFT. That CAS ruling rejected a joint appeal filed by Mr Ustyugov and another former athlete, Mrs Svetlana Sleptsova, who challenged the first-instance verdicts issued by the IBU Anti-Doping Hearing Panel in February 2020, which were based on findings from the Moscow Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) database.

That ruling resulted in Mr Ustyugov’s loss of all associated medals, points and prizes from 27 August 2013 to the end of the season 2013/2014 including the results of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi 2014 where he had been awarded a relay gold medal. The medal reallocation of that competition can only be implemented after a final verdict by the SFT and a subsequent formal IOC Executive Board decision on the reallocation.