Belarusian Triathlon Federation Coach Involved In Doping Scandal

The athlete claims that the coach recommended him to take the banned medication.

Belarusian triathlete Aliaksei Trakhimchyk published a correspondence with former coach Artsiom Bukavets on his Facebook. According to the athlete, the trainer offered him to take the banned drug testosterone propionate to "show results," belsat.eu reports.

According to Trakhimchyk, two years ago Artsiom Bukavets (the coach of the Belarusian Triathlon Federation) offered him to use doping.

This story came up by chance – after Bukavets left a comment about Trakhimchyk under the post of another triathlete. Now Aliaksei Trakhimchyk works with another coach and lives in Spain.

"This story has come to light only now, because this man [Artsiom Bukavets – note: Belsat.eu] did not miss the opportunity to pick on me in some comments, blaming me that my results can not be significant without doping", – Aliaksei Trakhimchyk said to Belsat.eu.

The athlete claims that the doping proposal caused him to stop his cooperation with the coach.

"I just didn't want to work with this man. It is not normal that the coach of the Belarusian Triathlon Federation offers doping so openly. Then I decided to keep silent. And now, when he writes all this without fear of responsibility... He writes about it in the social network (comments have already been deleted), and then in personal messages that I have to keep silent about it - it's not normal when the coach of the national team does this. Somehow he's not afraid to say that," – the athlete explained.

Artsiom Bukavets said to Belsat.eu that he did not persuade anyone to use doping. The coach claims that Trakhimchyk was not his trainee and is not a professional athlete at all. Bukavets says that some time ago he just remotely consulted Trakhimchyk – the guy wanted to do sports, asked the coach certain questions, and the latter answered him.

" professional is not an athlete and has nothing to do with sports school. This is a man from the street who works at a factory. He once asked me to help him because he wanted to start training. At one point he asked: What do professional athletes take as doping? So I told him what I read on the Internet. Whether he took something later or not, I don't know. And now he claims that I allegedly persuaded him to take doping. It's a lie. Even if I gave some information, what's the big deal? Anyone can Google this information," – Bukavets noted.

According to Trakhimchyk, the National Anti-Doping Agency of Belarus has already contacted him and offered to file an application "on violations."

The athlete noted to Belsat.eu, that he would not come to Belarus yet, as he was afraid of the consequences of the scandal.

"I don't know what kind of problems I may have because of this. I think there will be a big resonance on the eve of the European Games," – Aliaksei Trakhimchyk said.