Fierce criticism

Double Olympic champion: “World Championships full of liars and dopers”

The Biathlon World Championships will be held in Switzerland (Lenzerheide) for the first time from February 12 to 23, 2025. A major event that former biathlete Dmitry Vasilyev is boycotting.(Bild: AFP/APA/Tobias SCHWARZ)

Strong accusations and reproaches from double Olympic champion Dmitry Vasilyev. The Biathlon World Championships in Lenzerheide are "a World Championships of liars and dopers", according to the Russian.

In the eyes of the 62-year-old Russian, the Norwegians in particular have been fighting unfairly for years. "I'm not interested in watching races in which no Russian athletes take part. The biathlon world championships are now a world championship of liars and legalized dopers, which is what the Norwegians are. Why should I watch liars? You can look on the internet to see where the liars have ended up," Vasilyev ranted to "VseProSport". Russian athletes have been banned from biathlon for several years.

Reason for the Bö brothers' resignations?
The double Olympic champion from 1984 and 1988 is firmly convinced that the Norwegians' doping will soon be exposed. This is also the reason why the two Bö brothers, Johannes Thingnes Bö and Tarjei Bö, announced their retirement a year before the Olympic Games. "Each of them has a series of imaginary illnesses. For some reason, they are all asthmatics. If they are banned from doping, the podiums in biathlon and cross-country skiing will change a lot. The Norwegians will no longer get the results they have become accustomed to," said Vasilyev.

This is not the first time that the 62-year-old has sharply criticized the Norwegian biathlon team. However, he did not provide any evidence for his claims. However, the current president of the St. Petersburg Biathlon Association remains silent about the proven cases of doping in the Russian team.