His silver medal from the mass start of the Vancouver Olympics will turn into gold after the downgrading of Russian Evgeny Ustyogov, convicted of doping. Martin Fourcade reacted to the news on Thursday, in a post on his social networks: “I built myself around this founding silver medal so I necessarily feel different feelings at the announcement of the disqualification of the winner (…) All firstly the satisfaction that the fight against doping is bearing fruit, even 15 years later. This fight in which I invested so much finally transformed the color of my first medal. »
“Then the pride of becoming Olympic champion in three different Olympics between 2010 and 2018,” continues the biathlete, who once again became the most successful Frenchman at the Olympics (six gold medals). At a time when we are wrongly trying to classify athletes whose disciplines do not give the same chances of medals, this performance is my greatest satisfaction. »
“What would my career have looked like if I had won gold in my first games? », also asks the six-time Olympic champion, fourteen years after this first Olympic medal. Sanctioned in 2020 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Ustyogov saw his appeal rejected this week, thus securing Fourcade’s sixth title while awaiting the exhaustion of appeals. “If the time for justice is not yet completely over, this evening I have a thought for all the athletes who did not have my chance,” concludes the French champion.
