Andrus Veerpalu


Andrus Veerpalu is a retired Estonian cross-country skier. He is Estonia's most successful Winter Olympian, having won the gold medal in men's 15 km classical in 2002 and [Cross-country skiing at the Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics|2006 Winter Olympics – Men's 15 kilometre classical|2006], and silver in men's 50 km classical in 2002.

Career

On 17 February 2006 Veerpalu won his second Winter Olympics gold medal, becoming the fourth Estonian to have won two Olympic gold medals. He is the most successful Olympic athlete from Estonia with three medals.
Veerpalu has also found success at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, winning a gold at 15 km in 2009 at Liberec, 30 km in 2001 at Lahti and a silver at 50 km in 1999 at Ramsau. He has also won the 50 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 2003 and 2005. Veerpalu also competed in the men's 50 km, Mass Start Classic at the 2010 Winter Olympics, finishing at the 6th place.
Veerpalu became the oldest world champion in history with his victory at Liberec 2009 on the 15 km classical event. He was then 38 years old. He is also the oldest Olympic champion in individual distance.
Veerpalu earned the Holmenkollen medal in 2005, the first Estonian to do so.
Veerpalu is the fourth athlete to compete in cross-country skiing at six Winter Olympics, after Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi, Harri Kirvesniemi, and Jochen Behle.
On 23 February 2011, Veerpalu announced that he will end his professional sportsman career due to a chronic knee injury.

Doping case acquittal

Several months after Veerpalu's retirement it was announced that he had tested positive for HGH, however he had pleaded innocent in HGH treatment. Estonian biochemistry doctors explained that the verdict was untimely and that there was no reliable method to distinguish artificial HGH from natural background hormone. Veerpalu appealed the test result to the FIS.
The FIS antidoping commission found Veerpalu guilty and extended his ban to three years, due to Veerpalu's team's lack of co-operation with FIS. A group of top Estonian biochemists investigated the matter and insist Veerpalu was a false positive. The Court of Arbitration for Sport acquitted Veerpalu, lifted his doping ban and ordered the FIS to pay a part of Veerpalu's court costs on 25 March 2013.

The court stated "that there are many factors in this case which tend to indicate that the Athlete did in fact himself administer exogenous hGH" but found that the decision limit, the threshold for considering the result an adverse analytical finding, was not sufficiently reliable to uphold the doping conviction. Krista Fischer, a senior researcher for the Estonian Genome Center, questioned what these unexplained factors hinted at by CAS could be: ''"So what were these factors? Right now the only numbers that seem to hint at doping are the same four numbers that have been ruled invalid."''

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

  • 3 medals –
Year Age 10 km 15 km Pursuit 30 km 50 km Sprint 4 × 10 km
relay 		Team
sprint
199221214244—10
1994233655—26—
1998278[Cross-country skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's 15 kilometre freestyle pursuit|]19—10
200231Gold——Silver—9
200635Gold———8—
201039——6———

World Championships

  • 3 medals –
Year Age 10 km 15 km Pursuit 30 km 50 km Sprint 4 × 10 km
relay 		Team
sprint
199322495731——
19952472—30——
19972632—3911
19992814—Silver10
2001305—Gold——7
20033284——8
200534—194—9—
200938Gold19——88

World Cup

Individual podiums

  • 6 victories –
  • 11 podiums –
No.SeasonDateLocationRaceLevelPlace
1 1998–99 28 February 1999ref label|worldcuprace|1

Personal life

He is married to Angela Veerpalu and they have five children.