Nine Kazakh biathletes have been temporarily suspended on suspicion of doping by the International Biathlon Federation (IBU).
These provisional suspensions, which concern the Galina Vishnevskaya, Alina Raikova, Darya Klimina-Ussanova, Olga Poltoranina, Yan Savitsky, Maxim Braun, Anna Kistanova, Anton Pantov and Vassiliy Potkorytov biathletes, are linked to investigations in Italy and Austria, according to IBU. In January, the Italian police seized in the hotel room of Dr. Chossilbek Tagayev, doctor of the Kazakh team, large amounts of Prednisolone, a glucocorticoid with anti-inflammatory properties, prohibited to athletes in competition. The Kazakh doctor was then provisionally excluded from any competition.
At the 2017 Worlds in Hochfilzen (Austria), a search was carried out at the Kazakhstan Hotel and Austrian police seized medicines and mobile phones there. All Kazakh biathletes were then subjected to urine and blood doping tests, which proved to be negative.
The investigation for "sports fraud" was opened from a report from an individual who, in January 2017, had observed, at a petrol station in East Tyrol, the unloading of a large cardboard by occupants several minibuses.
The police found inside the box a considerable amount of second-hand disposable medical equipment, such as syringes, infusions and injection ampoules, and handwritten notes, suggesting a doping process. In addition, various accreditations for IBU events were also found.