MOSCOW — A 21-year-old Russian biathlete has died after suffering a heart attack during a Russian Cup race in Siberia.
Alina Yakimkina, a sports academy student from the central Russian city of Izhevsk, collapsed and died Saturday during the final cross-country skiing stage of a women’s 15-kilometre race.
Igor Krasnov, a regional sports minister, told the Tass news agency that Yakimkina had been found to have a "serious heart defect" and that "she was clean" of doping.
Russian media reported that investigators had searched a medical clinic where last year a doctor had pronounced Yakimkina fit to compete.