Agency Report
Anterselva, Italy – Former Russian biathlete Anton Shipulin has refused to hand back his Olympic relay gold medal from 2014 after the team was disqualified in connection with doping practices of its skier Evgeniy Ustyogov.
Shipulin told Match TV when asked whether he had sent back the medal to the International Olympic Committee: “No, why? I fought for it. It’s mine, I won’t give it back.”
The 2014 relay and 2010 mass start medals were reallocated on Sunday in a ceremony in Anterselva during the Milan/Cortina Games, with Germany earning the relay gold. The German team handed back their original silver medals which went to Austria.
Shipulin added in an Instagram post he would “only be ready to give back my medal” once the IOC and international federations “give back our athletes the flag and the hymn and stop humiliating them with the ‘neutral status.’
“We all remember that our athletes were removed. And with this the main rule was violated: Sport takes place away from politics.”
Russian athletes were banned from most international sport after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russians are now re-admitted as neutral athletes if they a pass a strict vetting process.
German 2014 relay member Eric Lesser meanwhile said after the reallocation that he doesn’t believe to have received an original gold medal handed back by Russia.
“I don’t think so because it has no scratches. I’m going to assume that the Russian would have scratched it before sending it off,” Lesser said.
