Valeriy Borchin

Who is Valeriy Borchin?

Valeriy Viktorovich Borchin is a race walker from Russia who was the reigning Olympic and is World champion over the 20 km distance.

He was born in the village of Povadimovo near Saransk in what is now the Republic of Mordovia. After trying out weightlifting and long-distance running in his youth, he began practising racewalking at the age of seventeen after a knee injury. He met Viktor Chegin, a prominent Olympic-level coach in the region, in 2004 and began practising with his training group. The year after he was the runner-up in the junior 10 km walk in the national championships. However, he received a year-long ban from competition soon after, lasting from June 2005 to 2006, after he failed an in-competition drugs test for the banned stimulant ephedrine.

Upon his return to competition, he took the senior national title and won the 20 km walk silver medal at the 2006 European Athletics Championships. Borchin formed part of a Russian medal sweep at the 2007 European Athletics U23 Championships, taking the gold medal and he competed at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics later that year, but did not manage to finish the race. He was runner-up to Francisco Javier Fernández at the 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary in May, leading Russia to the team victory.