“All-Russian Bunny” - Olga Zaitseva received this nickname at the peak of her career from devoted biathlon fans. The champion, who has long closed the doors to big-time sports, admits that fans still address her this way when they meet randomly. Olga was able to get two gold medals for Russia at the Olympics and won world championships three times.
Childhood and youth
Olga Zaitseva was born into a Muscovite family - a pilot and a kindergarten teacher. Elder sisters Elena and Oksana could already boast of some achievements in skiing as teenagers. Following the example of the girls, Olya also wanted to ski and in the third grade joined the ranks of the ski section of the sports school. The future champion was taken under the wing of coach Svetlana Nesterova, who was soon replaced by Elena Chukedova.
The school program was supplemented by another “snow” sport - biathlon, but the students were in no hurry to exchange ski racing for it; there was a catastrophic shortage of girls on the team. Olga became interested in this area, so she happily agreed to the offer to prepare for the competition.
Only two weeks were allotted for learning the basics of shooting. Zaitseva, under the leadership of Viktor Izotov, managed to master the basics and went to competitions in Krasnogorsk, and from there to the All-Russian Winter Spartakiad in Perm. Since then, the girl decided to seriously engage in biathlon. However, she didn’t give up skiing.
After 8th grade, Olga entered a sports college and managed to combine her studies with two sports. The biathlete remembers that time as one of the most difficult in her life. But she didn’t give up and even became a master of sports in biathlon, after which she said goodbye to cross-country skiing, having finally decided on her career path.
Zaitseva did not stop with a college diploma, she entered the Academy of Physical Culture, which she successfully graduated from. In the late 90s, the girl managed to serve her native state in the uniform of a policeman, in the 2000s she worked in the tax police, then with the rank of captain she was listed in the federal drug control service.
Sports talent, supported by perseverance in training, did not go unnoticed. Soon Olga joined the Russian junior team and won the first silver award at the championship in Kontiolahti. A year later, she brought back the championship title from Italy, obtained based on the results of team racing. In 1999, Zaitseva was accepted into its ranks by the adult national team.
Professional sports
The new millennium began with training under the guidance of her sister Oksana Rocheva. Olga Zaitseva made her debut in the Dynamo Central Sports Club, earning the title of international master of sports. And in 2001, her sports biography reached an international scale - the biathlete won silver at the European Championships. A year later she successfully debuted in the World Cup and received a pass to the 2002 Olympics.
The athlete delighted biathlon fans at the World Championships in 2005, where she collected the entire set of medals and received the honorary title of Honored Master of Sports. The following season, Olga Alekseevna Zaitseva’s list of awards was decorated with the first Olympic gold won in Turin.
The woman had to take a break from her sports career. Olga got married and gave birth to a child, it took her a long time to regain her lost form - she did not please her with her successes in performances. Experts did not pin their hopes on the athlete nominated for the 2009 championship after the doping scandal that deprived the Russian team of the biathlon color: Dmitry Yaroshenko and Ekaterina Yuryeva did not participate.
But the biathlete surprised by snatching two gold and the same number of bronze medals from her opponents. The following year, she added to her assets with several World Cups, as well as gold and silver (relay and mass start) at the Vancouver Olympics.
In 2011, the champion was going to put an end to professional sports. The impetus was the negative results of the women's team at the World Cup, which took place in Russia. But, having publicly announced the end of her career, Olga Zaitseva soon changed her mind and stayed for another three years - until the next Olympics.
During this period, the athlete collected a rich harvest of Cups and other awards. She won performances in Finland, took second and third places in Austria, and also led in sprint races and pursuit races. At the beginning of 2012, she won her third winning position at the World Cup in Germany, and took first place in competitions held in the Czech Republic.
In 2014, Olga Zaitseva graced the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The titled athlete ended her career with dignity - with a silver medal. But the sport did not just let the skier go: Olga Alekseevna took the post of acting head coach of the Russian women's biathlon team.
Personal life
In the fall of 2006, the athlete celebrated her wedding. Olga Zaitseva’s husband was a colleague, biathlete from Slovakia Milan Augustin, who ended his career back in the 90s due to a back injury.
The couple even got married, the ceremony took place in the homeland of the chosen one. The celebration was held modestly, in the circle of the closest people. And the newly-made spouses spent their honeymoon in Brussels.
Soon Olga and Milan had a son, who was named Alexander. The girl’s mother approved the decision to return to sports, taking on the main burden of raising her grandson.
In 2013, fans of the athlete learned the news about the divorce of a couple of biathletes. Zaitseva did not voice the reasons for the separation; moreover, on the official website she asked fans not to ask unnecessary questions.
A couple of years later, Sasha’s 8-year-old son had a brother; Olga Zaitseva named the second heir Stepan. The child's father is ski team servicer Pyotr Trifonov.
Olga Zaitseva now
After saying goodbye to biathlon, Zaitseva devoted her life to raising children and social activities. The woman was a member of the Athletes’ Commission of the Russian Olympic Committee and participated in the construction of a sports complex for small skiers and biathletes in the country’s capital.
At the end of 2017, by decision of the IOC, the authoritative athlete was deprived of the silver medal won at the 2014 Games. Following this, Olga Zaitseva received a lifelong ban from participating in the Olympics. The biathlete was included in the list of “suspicious” athletes for doping by accident. During a total inspection of the samples, scratches were found on the test tubes - they were allegedly opened to replace the “dirty” biomaterial with “clean” ones.
Together with Zaitseva, biathletes and Yana Romanova lost their awards and the opportunity to compete at the Olympics. In February 2018, the athletes filed an appeal against the IOC decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (USA). At the beginning of March it became known that the date for consideration of the claim had not yet been set.
Olga is currently on maternity leave and notes in an interview:
“I’m resting for now. My goal is to raise children."
The woman receives another education - she studies by correspondence at Moscow State University with a degree in sports management. He often becomes a guest and organizer of competitions, helping his sister Oksana develop sports school No. 102.
Awards
- 2001 – silver at the European Championships
- 2005 - bronze, silver and gold at the World Championships in Hochfilzen
- 2006 - gold at the Olympics in Turin
- 2009 – two bronze and two gold medals at the World Championships in Pyeongchang
- 2010 – gold at the Vancouver Olympics
- 2010 – silver at the Vancouver Olympics
- 2014 – silver at the Olympics in Sochi
Olga Zaitseva brought Russia its first gold at the Biathlon World Cup stages in the new season. The Russian woman excelled in the 15 km individual race
Moscow. January 14. website - A month and a half has passed since the start of the season, and our biathletes have never climbed to the highest step of the podium before. On Thursday, at the fifth stage of the Biathlon World Cup in Ruhpolding, Russian Olga Zaitseva broke the chain of failures that was lengthening every day, winning gold in the individual race. Our athlete swept across the track like a snowstorm and hit every single target on four firing lines. “Silver” was won by the German Andrea Henkel, who tried to make up the gap from Zaitseva before the finish line, and the “bronze” went to the Swede Helena Ekholm. Two more Russians, Svetlana Sleptsova (2 misses and 6th place) and Yana Romanova (1 miss and 10th place), made it into the top ten at the end of the race.
The individual men's race, which kicked off the fifth stage of the World Cup, brought Russian fans nothing but disappointment. The upper steps of the podium were traditionally chosen by the Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen, the Frenchman Martin Fourcade and the Austrian Dominik Landertinger. The best of our athletes, Evgeniy Ustyugov, took only seventh place. The ideal visibility on the track left the athletes no reason for excuses - they had only themselves to blame.
Russian girls had to take the rap for the men. Olga Zaitseva and Svetlana Sleptsova went to the track in the first group and set a high pace for the race - it was their time that the rest of the athletes matched. The rain that fell over the track in the morning made its own adjustments. The track became loose every minute, and the slopes turned into real ice slides, so athletes with low starting numbers had practically no chance of success. Zaitseva confidently closed all the targets on the first shooting range and took the lead in the race. Sleptsova temporarily pushed her national team partner into second place, but two errors at subsequent shooting ranges deprived her of her leader status.
Olga seemed to be gaining speed along the course, and her sharp right eye and faithful hand worked in combination with each other flawlessly - not a single cartridge from her rifle was wasted. Zaitseva completed the finishing segment incredibly powerfully and quickly; it was almost impossible to beat her final result (41:46.1). However, German Andrea Henkel kept the intrigue in the race until the last. The German representative was almost as good as Olga, and at the shooting range she looked just as confident as the Russian. A kilometer before the finish, Henkel lost to Olga by only five seconds, but the German lost her strength. Andrea not only did not reduce the gap, but was even further behind the Russian - by only 14.5 seconds. Third place rightfully went to Sweden's Helena Ekholm, who hit all 20 targets.
After her ninth career victory at the World Cup, Olga Zaitseva gave vent to her emotions and promised to please Russian biathlon fans more than once: “Good shooting today played a big role. I’m very glad that I did it! The weather was very difficult, the water is literally pouring off me now dripping, but we are women, we are strong, we have dealt with this. I got ready today, probably it was just my day. I won’t say that after such a performance it will be easier - it will still be difficult, but we will work and we will be very strong try to please the fans,” the official website of the RBU quotes her as saying.
The head coach of the Russian women's team, Anatoly Khovantsev, promised to celebrate by opening a bottle of champagne, which he had saved just for such an occasion: “Today there were very difficult weather conditions, it was pouring rain. Naturally, this could not but affect the movement. The girls had to work very hard, but I'm pleased that everyone went well in terms of speed. Three of the six - Zaitseva, Sleptsova and Romanova - did a good job shooting. Naturally, we are very happy - the first "gold"! Finally, everything got off the ground. This result will add psychological confidence, now we know for sure that we can run on the same level as the leaders and win. We will definitely celebrate, I had a special bottle of champagne prepared for the first golden podium, and we will open it in the evening."
A new person may appear in the doping proceedings against Russian participants in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Olga Zaitseva received a notice from the International Biathlon Union (IBU) - she is suspected of violating anti-doping rules. The athlete herself admitted that she did not understand what charges could be brought against her.
Publication from Dmitry Guberniev (@guberniev_dmitry) Nov 13, 2017 at 8:17 PST
Two-time Olympic champion Anfisa Reztsova believes that, following Zaitseva, they may begin to make claims against absolutely all Russian athletes and that the situation that has arisen is caused by political tensions in the world.
“I can no longer imagine how to protect our athletes from adversity and slander. Let's start rechecking the 80s. I don’t know how to stand up for athletes. It's all because of politics. They won’t stop with Olya Zaitseva, they will dig under everyone else, and God forbid they will get to Anton Shipulin with accusations. The most annoying thing is that there is no one to stand up for the athletes. Three years have passed since Sochi, and it is incomprehensible that they are now being deprived of medals. We need to ask questions to the Minister of Sports - both the previous and the current one. There is nothing new in doping. It can’t be that we are the only ones who use it, but everyone abroad is good. Did they find anything specific with Alexander Legkov? No, they didn’t prove anything! But still they were disqualified. I don’t believe that our athletes are so stupid as to work hard all their lives and then use doping. We treat everyone with friendliness, and foreign athletes respond to us in kind, but politics spoils everything. This is painful and offensive,” Reztsova said in an interview with RT.
Two-time Olympic biathlon champion Olga Zaitseva was accused of using prohibited substances. According to Sport Express, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspects the Russian woman of manipulating doping tests during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
During the recheck of all doping tests of domestic athletes from that Olympics, IOC experts noticed suspicious scratches on the test tubes with Zaitseva’s tests.
Previously, because of these microcracks, two other members of the Russian relay team, biathletes Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova, were included in the list of suspects.
The former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, and now an informant for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who fled to the United States, Grigory Rodchenkov, said that such scratches indicate that the test tubes were opened in order to replace a positive doping test with a negative one.
Based on the words of the chemist, the IOC has already managed to disqualify six Russian skiers for life - Alexander Legkov, Evgeny Belov, Alexey Petukhov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Evgenia Shapovalova and Yulia Ivanova, canceling their achievements in Sochi 2014. This led to the deprivation of the Russian team of four medals.
Now our country risks losing another award - silver for the biathlon relay.
This medal is the only one that Zaitseva won as part of a team at the home Games: the Russian woman won two more Olympic golds for the relay and one silver for the mass start at two other Olympics - in Turin and Vancouver. These awards are unlikely to be taken away from the biathlete, but the Sochi medal was under serious threat.
It is curious that Zaitseva had not previously appeared on any list of suspects and had not received public complaints from Rodchenkov. And now, according to media reports, the biathlete will have to appear before the IOC commission led by Dennis Oswald, which is re-checking doping tests taken by Russian athletes during the Games in Sochi. The meeting is scheduled for the end of November 2017.
However, the President of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU), Alexander Kravtsov, hastened to refute this unpleasant news.
“The information about scratches on Zaitseva’s samples is not true. Her case was not heard in Lausanne; the current proceedings concern only two athletes - Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova,” the R-Sport official quotes.
Gazeta.Ru discussed the current situation with the former senior coach of the Russian women's biathlon team, Alexander Selifonov, who previously coached the athlete.
— Information appeared in the media that Zaitseva was accused of doping during the Games in Sochi...
“Olga absolutely did not need any stimulation in order to show the results that she achieved.
She was already in good shape and always performed at a high level. All that was required was to properly lead Zaitseva to the competition - then she would already give results and win medals. True, during Sochi 2014 the management missed something (the athlete was only able to achieve silver in the relay - Gazeta.Ru), but I was no longer at these Games. Everything was then led by the German coach Wolfgang Pichler.
In any case, Olga is one hundred percent a pure athlete. They did not accept anything forbidden.
— What do you think about the disqualification of our athletes due to scratches on test tubes?
“These scratches are kind of absurd.” I believe that this is a purely politically motivated order.
If the suspension occurs only because of scratches, then an appeal must be filed to other authorities. It is unrealistic to disqualify athletes on this basis alone. It is clear that WADA insists that Russia allegedly had a system of state support for doping, although it is clear that there was nothing.
— Will this affect the reputation of Zaitseva, who has already completed her career?
“I don’t think this will change the attitude towards Olga, even if she is somehow found guilty of doping. After all, it is not clear on what basis they do this. I still don’t understand why our skiers were suspended, especially for life. This means that WADA has some solid evidence. Or is it all just based on the testimony of Rodchenkov, who himself invented something there and offered it to the athletes?
Either something is being hushed up here, or they simply want to remove us from the 2018 Olympics by any means necessary. Perhaps, when the Games are already held, the IOC will say: “Oh, we realized that we were mistaken.”
You can find other news and materials on the chronicles, as well as in the sports department groups on social networks
Irina K., are we doing anything at all? Or are we just making excuses for our fans?)
Ivan Pokhmelev, she did the right thing. You need to immediately include a “response”, let the SBR and the Ministry of Sports provide legal assistance. They themselves offered Olga the position of head coach. We don’t abandon our own!)).
Olga Zaitseva sent a request to the International Biathlon Union (IBU) for an individual review of her case regarding an anti-doping rule violation. sport.mail.ru
sports.ru
The situation with RUSADA is predictable. It was clear for a long time that it would not be restored. I hope that we already know what further steps we will take.
Dmitry, that's correct. If our people are thrown out of the Olympic Games, what good is this closed club of interests for us?)).
Irina, we need to leave this creepy “organization.” Otherwise they will decide to “increase their funding a hundred times.” Let them implement their “decisions made at a closed meeting” at the expense of others
They increase their funding, then they build everyone, it’s a pity until no country understands their work, technical specifications and so on.
At a meeting of the board of founders of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which takes place in Seoul (South Korea) behind closed doors, it was decided to increase the organization's budget for 2018 by 8%. It will amount to $32 million, the agency’s press service reports.
WADA's budget for 2017 is $29.7 million.
A four-year plan to gradually increase the budget of the World Anti-Doping Agency was also approved. In 2019 it will be increased by 15%, in 2020 by another 15%, in 2021 by another 5%.
More and more voices are being heard in support of ours. The question arises: where is the discipline, why don’t they obediently lick the boots of their overseas masters?
By the way, about the owners. Previously, it was believed on the site that Besserberg was in charge of VADA.
You sometimes read such crap, and then with a smart look you begin to bring “light to the masses,” and only then do you pay attention to the puzzled looks of fans of other sports.
Two-time world champion Finn Hogen Krogh said that he is against the Russian team not being allowed to participate in the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.
The skier expressed disagreement with the decision of the Norwegian Anti-Doping Agency to sign the appeal of 28 national anti-doping agencies that made such an appeal.
“The worst thing is if innocent athletes are suspended. This is deeply unfair,” Krogh said.
This means that the IOC believes that by allowing Russia into the Olympic Games, they will support Putin. Oh well. They also say that Russia interfered in the American elections. Themselves are better.
Dmitry,
Yes, the nuts are tightened ((
Interestingly, WADA temporarily suspended the accreditation of the Paris laboratory at the end of September. Later, the AP, citing the Secretary General of the French Anti-Doping Agency, Mathieu Théoran, reported that the problem with the Paris laboratory arose after work on testing a batch of 80 doping samples of bodybuilders.
The Paris laboratory will be able to return its license after WADA conducts its own disciplinary proceedings. Until this point, the French are prohibited from carrying out any anti-doping activities, including testing doping samples.
All samples taken by doping officers in France will be tested by foreign laboratories.
This will not affect the admission of French athletes to the Olympic Games and other competitions. And they cling to ours ((.
Marina, hello))
“ESPN does not rule out that athletes could be tested through their international federations.
The agency also notes that some Russian athletes may have deliberately sought to train outside the country in order to be tested in more reliable systems, based on the consideration that this fact could affect their eligibility for international competition if neutral status were to be considered."
i.e. the fact that in Rusada there are fewer tests, but they try in more “reliable” systems - this is not a minus for our athletes?
Alexander. ru, I think not only, there are a lot of prohibited substances in the body))
Natalya Anatolyevna, Dmitry, I’m talking about the same thing: foreign athletes are not aware of what is really happening, they draw information from their media, that’s why one argues that our athletes are not tested enough, although how can he know this reliably, but he runs his mouth, and the other doesn’t know what to think about the “doping program” in Russia.
Marina, the fact is that testing at internal competitions is of little interest to anyone. What difference does it make to me who the Amers test, how many times they test them, if their best athletes legally consume doping in their buckets at international competitions?
This time.
And two - it has already been written here several times (with links) that elite Western athletes are tested much less frequently compared to ours. I remember even Keglya was perplexed that he had not been tested for almost years.
Natalya Anatolyevna, wow, the bearded man turned out to be less rotten compared to Fourcade.
Marina, it’s unlikely that foreigners follow the latest events like we do, and even more so they hardly studied the report, which is why Sundby says that he doesn’t understand anything - the samples are clean, they were removed from the Olympic Games, but they perform at competitions
sports.ru
Dmitry, well, the words of some American biathlete are just his words, especially since he’s talking nonsense about the fact that our athletes are tested less, apparently he’s read a lot of the press, but how does he know what he can do? He’s like, WADA reports did it show?
This American is right about one thing - all those named (except for the non-competing Sotnikova) are included in the international testing pool on the initiative of international federations, plus the same Shipulin or Kulizhnikov are tested at the World Cup as prize-winners several times a season. It was only in Khanty that doping control came to the training camp and checked everyone.
So you shouldn’t pay attention to such chatter. Now, if WADA starts making claims, then there will be something to worry about.
This means we won’t have to wait long for a decision on our punished skiers... I really want to be an optimist and believe in the impartiality and apolitical nature of FIS, but there are practically no reasons for such optimism. And therefore you already begin to “pray” that our entire ski team will not be suspended from international competitions.
And the heads of foreign athletes are a complete mess, which is not surprising, but it seems that everyone is starting to get tired of this hysteria around Sochi and our athletes.
Greetings to everyone, Marina Apatity, it is noticeable that Western athletes are now speaking in a completely different tone, everything is very careful and as correct as possible, and what a hysteria there was last year. It’s a pity that FIS will consider the guys’ cases so early, I don’t expect anything good.
Marina Apatity, the Norwegians are very friendly with our ski guys. And they understand everything perfectly. And, most importantly, they understand that any athlete from any country, like the country itself, can now be accused by such a story, or something similar.
Dmitry, yeah. I haven't heard anything about Ustyugov. And that's it for now. Now what kind of pure Marit will suffer.
Norway is like that. After all, the truth was the fourth and there’s no getting around it.
Oksana, I think they’ll find cognac there. We didn't deviate from the topic))
Dmitry, they’ll get to Guber soon))
Dmitry, everything is still ahead.
Iola, ha, well, I told you that they’ll get to Shipulin too! True, for some reason I don’t see Ustyugov
Iola, no matter what the news, it’s already bursting with laughter)) and it’s not about the bathhouse))
Oksana, I respect Banka))
Galina, well, I had no doubts on this issue.
Iola, we are intuitive))
Loktik, we didn’t agree))
Dmitry, sweat dripped directly into the urine, corroding the lid of the container))
Iola, there you go. And who claims that sport is not politics?
