Three Russian Olympic race-walk champions have been suspended as part of a doping investigation in Russian athletics, according to the IAAF. 

 

2012 Olympic gold medalist Sergei Kirdyapkin, who won the men’s 50k race, and Valery Borchin and Olga Kaniskina were all suspended. Borchin won men’s 20k gold and Kaniskina won the women’s 20k race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

 

The three athletes were among five who have been under investigation since late 2012. The remaining two athletes are Segei Bakulin and Vladimir Kanaykin, who won gold and silver at the 2011 World Championships. Both Borchin and Kanaykin received doping bans earlier in their careers before competing again, and now risk life bans for the second offense. 

 

The five cases relate to irregularities in the athletes’ biological passports, which monitor blood values over time to look for evidence of doping. The investigations could endanger the athletes’ results at the 2012 Olympics if they are deemed to have competed with blood values associated with doping. The performances from the 2008 Olympics will not be affected because the biological passport system was introduced by the IAAF in 2009. 

 

The investigations have found that of the 17 gold medals won by Russian walkers at the Olympics and World Championships in the last decade, 16 were won by athletes who have been banned for doping at some stage of their careers or who are currently under investigation. 

The recent suspensions add to the long list of Russian event groups that have also been under investigation in the last year.