Sergei Tarasov (biathlete)

Sergei Tarasov
Personal information
Full name Sergei Petrovich Tarasov
Born (1965-02-15) 15 February 1965
Staroaleiskoe, Altai Krai, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Professional information
Sport Biathlon
Olympic Games
Teams 2 (1994, 1998)
Medals 4 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams 5 (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997)
Medals 9 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 9 (1989/90–1997/98)
Individual victories 3
Individual podiums 10

Sergei Petrovich Tarasov (Russian: Серге́й Петро́вич Тара́сов; born 15 February 1965) is a former Russian biathlete. In the 1990s, he was one of the dominating biathletes, winning four Olympic medals and seven World Championship medals over the course of his career.

Albertville incident

During the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, Tarasov became acutely ill and had to be taken to the hospital. Rumours about the cause of his grave medical condition soon started floating around the Olympic village, and was also reported in the press,[1] but the Russian team leaders said he'd suffered kidney failure from eating poisonous mushrooms. Many years later, in 2015, Tarasov gave an interview where he confirmed what many had thought in 1992, his kidney failure was caused by a botched blood transfusion. He'd either gotten someone else's blood, or the blood had not been properly refigerated during storage. The blood transfusion at the Olympics was done by the team to illegally enhance his performance in the upcoming competitions, but nearly cost him his life.[2]

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.[3]

Olympic Games

4 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Relay
Norway 1994 Lillehammer Gold Bronze Silver
Japan 1998 Nagano 15th 22nd Bronze

World Championships

9 medals (2 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Team Relay
Finland 1991 Lahti 10th 10th N/A Bronze Silver
Bulgaria 1993 Borovets Silver Bronze N/A — Silver
Canada 1994 Canmore N/A N/A N/A Silver N/A
Germany 1996 Ruhpolding Gold 9th N/A — Gold
Slovakia 1997 Brezno-Osrblie 30th 5th Silver 15th 8th
*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.
**Pursuit was added as an event in 1997.

Individual victories

4 victories (3 In, 1 Sp)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
1990–91
1 victory
(1 Sp) 		19 January 1991 Germany Ruhpolding10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1993–94
2 victories
(2 In) 		9 December 1993 Austria Bad Gastein20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
20 February 1994 Norway Lillehammer20 km individualWinter Olympic Games
1995–96
1 victory
(1 In) 		4 February 1996 Germany Ruhpolding20 km individualBiathlon World Championships
*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

References

  1. ↑ Transfusion fells athlete, The Hour, 14 February 1992
  2. ↑ Сергей Тарасов: как я не умер, sport-express.ru, 13 February 2015
  3. ↑ "Sergei Tarasov". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
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