Fourcade, Bjorndalen getting Olympic biathlon medal upgrades from Russian doping case

MILAN (AP) — More than 15 years after the Vancouver Olympics, retired French biathlon star Martin Fourcade was allocated another gold medal on Friday after a Russian doping case was resolved.

The International Olympic Committee executive board reallocated medals from events that Russian biathlete Evgeny Ustyugov won medals in at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2014 edition at Sochi.

The revised Sochi result in men’s relay means Norwegian biathlon great Ole Einar Bjorndalen gets a 14th career Olympic medal, extending his record as the most decorated male athlete in Winter Games history. Norway is upgraded to bronze with Ustyugov and the Russians stripped of gold.

Ustyugov’s blood doping was confirmed by rulings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2020 and on appeal last year. They forced his disqualifications in five Olympic events that finally let the IOC reallocate medals to athletes who did not get their rightful prize at the Winter Games.

Fourcade finished second behind Ustyugov in the 15-kilometer mass start event in 2010 and will become an Olympic gold medalist for the sixth time.

The 37-year-old Fourcade is now an IOC member, elected by his fellow athletes at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. He could get his newest medal in February at the next Winter Games, hosted by Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy.

In the 15-kilometer event from Vancouver, Pavol Hurajt of Slovakia will get silver and Christoph Sumann of Austria moves up to bronze.

Ustyugov also was stripped of bronze with the Russian team in the men’s relay in Vancouver. Sweden’s team is upgraded to get those medals.

The IOC also reallocated medals as the result of a separate doping case involving Ustyugov, from the men’s relay at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Germany is upgraded to gold, Austria to silver and fourth-placed Norway with Bjorndalen gets bronze.

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