Sergei Petrovich Tarasov (russian: Сергей Петрович Тарасов; born 15 February 1965) is a former

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

biathlete The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not time ...

. 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 ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

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, 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.Сергей Тарасов: как я не умер
sport-express.ru, 13 February 2015

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

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

World Championships

''9 medals (2 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze)'' :''*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)'' :''*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the

Biathlon World Cup The Biathlon World Cup is a top-level biathlon season-long competition series. It has been held since the winter seasons of 1977–78 for men and 1982–83 for women. The women's seasons until 1986–87 season were called the European Cup, alt ...

, Biathlon World Championships and the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarasov, Sergei 1965 births Living people Soviet male biathletes Russian male biathletes Biathletes at the 1994 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic biathletes of Russia Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in biathlon Olympic bronze medalists for Russia Olympic silver medalists for Russia Olympic gold medalists for Russia Biathlon World Championships medalists Doping cases in biathlon Soviet sportspeople in doping cases Russian sportspeople in doping cases Sportspeople from Altai Krai