The year was 2019, and the world championship in classic skiing in Seefeld, Austria, included a men’s 15 kilometer race on the program that day. In the morning, however, the police launched a raid on the accommodation resort and five fraudsters were caught in its network, who were arrested – Aleksej Poltoranin, Karel Tammjärv, Andreas Veerpalu and the Austrian duo Dominik Baldauf and Max Hauke.
In the case of the last-named, the police did a masterstroke when they caught him in the act with a needle in his vein during a blood transfusion. The video of this raid was also released to the public at the time.
This was followed by a four-year suspension from the International Ski Federation (FIS), which expires this week on Wednesday. And the sinners didn’t want to waste time.
Viaplay station reporter Ludvig Holmberg brought information during the WC in Planica that the now 35-year-old Poltoranin is preparing for the national races in Kazakhstan with the aim of returning to the World Cup as soon as possible.
Baldauf and Hauke wanted to return to the scene already this week, at the famous Swedish marathon, the Vasa Run.
The duo signed up for the Nattvasan 90 race, which is run along the same course as the famous marathon, but with a freestyle technique starting on Friday at 8 o’clock in the evening, under the name “Max & Dominik”. The night race is run both individually and as a pair relay and it is part of a whole week within the Vasaloppet, which includes a total of twelve races.
However, the participation of the Austrian sinners eventually comes off. Hauke has to cancel the start in Sweden. “Unfortunately, I got sick, as did the people I was supposed to be traveling with. The trip to Sweden is cancelled,” Hauke told Dagbladet.
“I want to be clear. I have no plans to make a comeback to the World Cup or professional racing. I want to have fun cross-country skiing. I’m training hard, which is probably why people think I’m planning a comeback. But I have to deny that,” explained Hauke.
Doubts about participation in Vasa’s run also exist in the case of his compatriot Baldauf. “I’m offering starting numbers for Vasa’s run (1x Vasa’s run, 2x team Nattvasan),” Baldauf posted the offer on his Instagram account.
Hauke and Baldauf admitted to successfully doping for years without being caught.
“We always used blood doping in the morning before the race. I took a liter of blood, we took it again after the race. Our blood values were then normal. But in truth, I was never tested after the race. If we went for the test, it was enough to drink a liter of salt water, which would erase the traces of doping,” explained Hauke’s deception tactics.
“I wore a long-sleeved T-shirt all summer to cover the needle scars. In any case, I said that they are the result of doping controls. And people believed it,” he added.
