She was only 58 years old: Olympic cross-country skiing and biathlon champion died unexpectedly

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The winter sports world mourns Anfisa Reszowa. The Russian, who was successful in both biathlon and cross-country skiing, died on Thursday, the national federation announced on Friday. Reztova was only 58 years old.

As her ex-husband Leonid Reszow told the Tass news agency, she had been in hospital since mid-October and was last in intensive care. The exact cause of death is not known, but Reszowa suffered a heart attack in March.

First woman to win gold in two sports

The career of the exceptional Russian athlete was special. Reszowa became world cross-country champion with the 4×5 km relay in 1985, 1987 and 1999, and won Olympic gold in 1988. She also won one Olympic silver medal and two World Cup silver medals in the individual event. As Reszowa revealed in an interview with sports.ru in 2020, she made great sacrifices for this. So in 1987 she had a child aborted because the trainers said, “She’s pregnant, but we need medals – she can’t have the child.” She later became the mother of four daughters.

Reszowa switched to biathlon for the 1990/91 season. She was also extremely successful in this discipline, winning the overall World Cup twice. In 1992 she won Olympic bronze and World Cup silver in the relay, and became Olympic sprint champion in the individual event. Two years later she could also call herself an Olympic relay champion. She was the first woman to become an Olympic champion in two sports.

After her career, Reszowa caused a stir with, among other things, spicy confessions. In 2020, she admitted to blood doping during the 1988 Olympics. And a year ago she heavily criticized the international biathlon world federation IBU for extending its ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus. (beer)

Source : Blick