Mikhail Botvinov

Mikhail Viktorovich Botvinov (Russian: Михаил Викторович Ботвинов); born 17 November 1967 in Lidinka, Soviet Union) is a Russian-born Austrian cross-country skier who competed from 1990 to 2007 for both Russia (until 1996) and Austria (since 1997).

He won two medals at the Winter Olympics with a silver in the men's 30 km freestyle mass start event in 2002 and a bronze in the men's 50 km freestyle mass start in 2006 (Both for Austria).

[1] His biggest successes were at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, where he won three medals.

Botvinov emigrated from Russia to Austria in 1996 and was forced to sit out both the 1996–97 FIS World Cup Season and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano until he could his citizenship status clarified, but returned to form in 1998.

He also encountered controversy with his teammate Christian Hoffmann regarding blood doping in 2002, though both were cleared by the International Olympic Committee on 9 April 2002.