Beat Hefti repeatedly battled against doped competitors. Doping was also the reason why he had to wait over five years for his Olympic gold medal. But he doesn't blame anyone - especially not the Russians.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- At the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Beat Hefti came second in the two-man event behind Russia's Alexander Zubkov.
- After years of legal wrangling, he was allowed to return the silver medal in 2019 and receive the gold medal. This was because Zubkov was doped during his Olympic victory.
- Hefti, who had to wait five and a half years for gold because he was cheated in Sochi, does not hold a grudge against Zubkov. "I never had any problems with Zubkov. He grew up in a system where I would probably have been like him. They grew up with doping."
There would certainly be reasons to be angry. Beat Hefti, however, does not blame Alexander Zubkov - the Russian who cheated the bobsleigh world in Sochi in 2014 and won the gold medal in the two-man bobsleigh thanks to doping until he was stripped of it after a tough legal battle in 2019. "I never had any problems with Zubkov," says Hefti in the Olympic talk show "Legends for Eternity" on blue.
"He grew up in a system where I probably would have been like him. You grew up with doping. If I had been Russian and in a situation like him, I would have acted the same way," says Hefti disarmingly honestly. Nevertheless: "It just wasn't in accordance with the rules, and that's why it was right that Zubkov was disqualified."
Hefti relied on his own strength
Did he ever dope himself? Hefti says: "I never came into contact with it myself. But doping was always an issue for us Swiss too. In the USA or Canada anyway. Bobsleigh is a sport in which speed counts - doping is extremely beneficial." However, Hefti, now 47 years old, has always been able to rely on his own body. "I was lucky that I was naturally very strong. That's why doping was out of the question."
And yet Hefti admits that he has also wondered how he would have reacted if he had been offered doping. "I did ask myself what I would have done if I had only been a little short of the podium and I had known that doping would help me." However, the insight of the multiple European champion, world champion and overall World Cup winner from Herisau remains: "I wouldn't take the doping substance and do everything largely the same as I did. I had a super career." Perhaps he would have achieved a little more here and there if he had strengthened himself with an illicit substance. "But the bottom line is that I can be more than satisfied. I've had a lot of great moments."
Some, like the gold medal in Sochi, were only achieved five and a half years later.
