Sergei Petrovich Tarasov (; 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.
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,Transfusion fells athlete, The Hour, 14 February 1992 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) EventIndividualSprintRelay 1994 Lillehammer Gold Bronze Silver 1998 Nagano 15th 22nd Bronze
World Championships 9 medals (2 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze) EventIndividualSprintPursuitTeamRelay 1991 Lahti 10th 10th Bronze Silver 1993 Borovets Silver Bronze — Silver 1994 Canmore Silver 1996 Ruhpolding Gold 9th — 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.
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