The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) have announced that the 54-year-old Chegin, whose athletes won medals at the last three Olympics, was found guilty of two charges related to helping athletes to dope.

Earlier this week, Sergey Kirdyapkin was stripped of his Olympic medal he had won in the 50 kilometres walk at London 2012 for doping. 

Elena Lashmanova, another athlete coached by Chegin, had won the women's 20km race at London 2012 and has been allowed to keep her gold medal, despite testing positive herself in 2014.

Chegin turned Russia's race walkers into a world-beating team and was rewarded with near-total control of a state-funded training centre in Saransk named in his honour.

His success was undermined in recent years by more than 30 failed tests and doping cases by Russian walkers, more than 20 of them from his centre.

On Thursday (March 24), the Court of Arbitration for Sport retrospectively disqualified five of Chegin's walkers from events, including the Olympics and World Championships, meaning Russia stands to lose two Olympic medals.

In July 2014 the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) dropped Chegin from their team support staff for that year's European Championships in Zurich after then President Valentin Balakhnichev claimed the high number of positive cases involving his cases had “tarnished Chegin’s career”.

The ARAF, however, did not prevent Chegin from continuing to coach walkers within Russia and he was also spotted on the course during the Championships in the Swiss city, encouraging athletes he worked with. 

Chegin was suspended by the ARAF in July 2015 and then, that November, an investigative report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended that he should be given a lifetime ban from sport, due to involvement in a wide-ranging Russian doping scheme in track and field.

The publication of the report led to Russia being suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations, putting in jeopardy the country's participation at this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. 

Other notable names coached by Chegin have included Sergey Bakulin, stripped of the gold medal he had won in the 50km at the 2011 World Championships after he was retrospectively disqualified due to problems with his athlete biological passport (ABP), and Valeriy Borchin, winner of the 20km at Beijing 2008 and who is now serving an eight-year ban following abnormalities in his ABP.

The RUSADA investigation into Chegin lasted 18 months and ended with a hearing before a Disciplinary Committee on February 17, RUSADA claimed. 

"During the  investigation, RUSADA interviewed athletes, employees of the V.M. Chegin Olympic Training Center, analysed athlete’s biological passports data and information from various sources," RUSADA said in a statement. 

"The Committee considered that RUSADA managed to prove Viktor Chegin’s involvement into a scheme of using prohibited substances and methods in the Center."