Andrus Veerpalu

Andrus Veerpalu (born 8 February 1971) is a retired Estonian cross-country skier. He is Estonia's most successful Winter Olympian, having won the gold medal in men's 15 kilometre classical in 2002 and 2006, and silver in men's 50 kilometre classical in 2002.

Andrus Veerpalu
Veerpalu in 2013
Full nameAndrus Veerpalu
Born (1971-02-08) 8 February 1971
Pärnu, Estonia
Height1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Ski clubJõulu
World Cup career
Seasons1990–2011
Individual wins6
Indiv. podiums11
Medal record
Men's cross country skiing
Representing Estonia
Olympic Games
2002 Salt Lake City15 km classical
2006 Turin15 km classical
2002 Salt Lake City50 km classical
World Championships
2001 Lahti30 km classical
2009 Liberec15 km classical
1999 Ramsau50 km classical

Career

On 17 February 2006 Veerpalu won his second Winter Olympics gold medal (in 15 km cross country skiing; his previous gold medal is from the Salt Lake City games), becoming the fourth Estonian to have won two Olympic gold medals (Kristjan Palusalu, Erika Salumäe and Kristina Šmigun-Vähi are the first three). He is the most successful Olympic athlete from Estonia with three medals. (Kristina Šmigun-Vähi tied that record at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics)

Veerpalu has also found success at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, winning a gold at 15 km in 2009 at Liberec, 30 km in 2001 at Lahti and a silver at 50 km in 1999 at Ramsau. He has also won the 50 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 2003 and 2005. Veerpalu also competed in the men's 50 km, Mass Start Classic at the 2010 Winter Olympics, finishing at the 6th place.

Andrus Veerpalu became the oldest world champion in history with his victory at Liberec 2009 on the 15 km classical event. He was then 38 years old.[1] He is also the oldest Olympic champion in individual distance.

Veerpalu earned the Holmenkollen medal in 2005, the first Estonian to do so.

Veerpalu is the fourth athlete to compete in cross-country skiing at six Winter Olympics, after Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi, Harri Kirvesniemi, and Jochen Behle. (Kateřina Neumannová is also a cross-country skier who competed at six Olympics, but one of her appearances was in cycling.)

On 23 February 2011, Veerpalu announced that he will end his professional sportsman career due to a chronic knee injury.[2]

Doping case acquittal

Several months after Veerpalu's retirement it was announced that he had tested positive for HGH (growth hormone), however he had pleaded innocent in HGH treatment. Estonian biochemistry doctors explained that the verdict was untimely and that there was no reliable method to distinguish artificial HGH from natural background hormone.[3][4][5] Veerpalu appealed the test result to the FIS.[6] The FIS antidoping commission found Veerpalu guilty and extended his ban to three years, due to Veerpalu's team's lack of co-operation with FIS.[7] A group of top Estonian biochemists investigated the matter and insist Veerpalu was a false positive.[8][9] The Court of Arbitration for Sport acquitted Veerpalu, lifted his doping ban and ordered the FIS to pay a part of Veerpalu's court costs on 25 March 2013.[10]
The court stated "that there are many factors in this case which tend to indicate that the Athlete did in fact himself administer exogenous hGH" but found that the decision limit, the threshold for considering the result an adverse analytical finding, was not sufficiently reliable to uphold the doping conviction.[11] Krista Fischer, a senior researcher for the Estonian Genome Center, questioned what these unexplained factors hinted at by CAS could be: "So what were these factors? Right now the only numbers that seem to hint at doping are the same four numbers that have been ruled invalid."[12]

World Cup results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).[13]

Individual podiums
  • 6 victories
  • 11 podiums
No. Season Date Location Race Level Place
1 1998–99 28 February 1999 Ramsau, Austria50 km Individual CWorld Championships[1]2nd
2 2002–03 12 January 2003 Otepää, Estonia30 km Mass Start CWorld Cup3rd
315 February 2003 Asiago, Italy10 km Individual CWorld Cup1st
48 March 2003 Oslo, Norway50 km Individual CWorld Cup1st
52003–0413 December 2003 Davos, Switzerland15 km Individual CWorld Cup1st
616 December 2003 Val di Fiemme, Italy1.2 km Sprint CWorld Cup3rd
717 January 2004 Nové Město, Czech Republic15 km Individual CWorld Cup1st
816 December 2003 Lahti, Finland15 km Individual CWorld Cup3rd
92004–058 January 2005 Otepää, Estonia15 km Individual CWorld Cup1st
1012 March 2005 Oslo, Norway50 km Individual CWorld Cup1st
11 2009–10 16 January 2010 Otepää, Estonia15 km Individual CWorld Cup2nd

Note: 1 Until the 1999 World Championships, World Championship races were included in the World Cup scoring system.

Personal life

He is married to Angela Veerpalu and they have five children.

See also

References
  1. FIS-Ski.com article on Veerpalu's victory. – accessed 1 March 2009.
  2. "Veerpalu Retires from Skiing On Eve of World Championships". ERR. Estonian Public Broadcasting. 23 February 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  3. Erik Rand. "Doktor Laasik: Veerpalu dopinguproovi tulemustes võib kahelda" [Doctor Laasik: One may doubt in the results of Veerpalu's doping test] (in Estonian). Eesti Päevaleht. Archived from the original on 10 April 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
  4. Priit Luts, Oliver Kahu. "Biokeemik: tehis- ja loomulikku hormooni on raske eristada" [Biochemist: Artificial and natural hormone is difficult to distinguish]. Eesti Rahvusringhääling. Archived from the original on 11 April 2011.
  5. Tartu Ülikooli professor: Veerpalu dopingupatuseks nimetamine on ennatlik (Professor of the University of Tartu: It is untimely to condemn Veerpalu as guilty in doping) Archived 12 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine Eesti Päevaleht
  6. "VIDEO: Vandeadvokaat Aivar Pilv: vajadusel lähme arbitraažikohtusse" [Attorney Aivar Pilv: If necessary, we will to go to the Court of Arbitration]. sport.delfi.ee. 7 April 2011.
  7. "FIS otsustas: Andrus Veerpalu on süüdi". Eesti Päevaleht. 23 August 2011.
  8. Alaveri jätkamine peatreenerina sõltub FISi otsusest (Alaver's resumption as head coach depends on FIS's decision). Postimees
  9. "Veerpalu kaitsev teadlane kritiseerib dopingutesti usutavust" (in Estonian). Postimees.
  10. CAS issues decision in the case of Veerpalu International Ski Federation
  11. Andrus Veerpalu v International Ski Federation (CAS 2013). Text
  12. "NFL Players 'Hail' Veerpalu Verdict". Estonian Public Broadcasting. 27 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  13. "Athlete : Veerpalu Andrus". FIS-Ski. International Ski Federation. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
Awards
Preceded by
Erki Nool		 Estonian Male Athlete of the Year
1999		 Succeeded by
Erki Nool
Preceded by
Erki Nool		 Estonian Male Athlete of the Year
2001–2002		 Succeeded by
Andrus Värnik
Preceded by
Andrus Värnik		 Estonian Male Athlete of the Year
2006		 Succeeded by
Gerd Kanter
Preceded by
Gerd Kanter		 Estonian Male Athlete of the Year
2009		 Succeeded by
Nikolai Novosjolov


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