Sergei Tarasov (biathlete)

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.

Sergei Tarasov
Personal information
Full nameSergei Petrovich Tarasov
Born (1965-02-15) 15 February 1965
Staroaleiskoe, Altai Krai, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Height1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Professional information
SportBiathlon
Olympic Games
Teams2 (1994, 1998)
Medals4 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams5 (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997)
Medals9 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons9 (1989/90–1997/98)
Individual victories3
Individual podiums10

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 refrigerated 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
1994 Lillehammer Gold Bronze Silver
1998 Nagano 15th 22nd Bronze

World Championships

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

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Team Relay
1991 Lahti 10th 10th N/A Bronze Silver
1993 Borovets Silver Bronze N/A — Silver
1994 Canmore N/A N/A N/A Silver N/A
1996 Ruhpolding Gold 9th N/A — Gold
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 Ruhpolding10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1993–94
2 victories
(2 In)		9 December 1993 Bad Gastein20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
20 February 1994 Lillehammer20 km individualWinter Olympic Games
1995–96
1 victory
(1 In)		4 February 1996 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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