Andrejs Rastorgujevs
Andrejs Rastorgujevs is a Latvian biathlete. He has participated in three Winter Olympics, and has two individual and one relay Biathlon World Cup podium.
Career
Andrejs Rastorgujevs is a biathlete from Latvia. In the first event of 2009–10 Biathlon World Cup in Östersund he participated in 10 km sprint, where he finished 47th, but later on he was disqualified for finishing in the wrong lane. 2012-13 Biathlon World Cup was the breakthrough season for Rastorgujevs, finishing the season 36th overall. Next year he finished the season 16th overall, while earning four Top 6 finishes.After finishing fourth four times during his career, during the last race of 2016-17 Biathlon World Cup he finally won his first podium, finishing second at the 15 km mass start in Oslo.
Rastorgujevs took part also at the 2010 Winter Olympics, where he finished 50th at the sprint and 58th at the pursuit.
Rastorgujevs served an 18 month competition ban from March 2021 to September 2022 for an anti-doping rule violation in relation to whereabouts failures. All of his results were disqualified from 1 July 2020 including his gold medal in the 20km sprint at the 2021 IBU Open European Championships. Rastorgujevs appealed the decision, but this was rejected in August 2022.
On 5 March 2023 Rastorgujevs and Baiba Bendika placed third, in the, in the Single Mixed Relays and earned a first-ever Relay podium for Latvia.
On 18 February 2024 Rastorgujevs won a silver medal in the 15-kilometer mass start at the Biathlon World Championships 2024 in Nove Mesto, winning his biggest success in his career and also in the history of Latvian biathlon.