Monday, February 4, 2002

Doping flip-flop irks skiers

Positive test is a negative in IOC hands

By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun
 SALT LAKE CITY -- Doping already has reared its ugly head here at the base of the Wasatch mountain range in snowy Utah.

 The Winter Olympics don't begin until Friday but already doping is the dominating issue. Indeed, when Montreal lawyer Dick Pound, in his role as chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, announces today the names of the 12-person team of independent observers who will monitor every stage of drug testing at the Games, it's a sure bet he will come under some fire.

 WADA is taking pounding on a number of fronts, but mostly as a result of the reinstatement last week of Estonian cross-country skier Kristina Smigun.

 THIRD PLACE

 Smigun, 24, tested positive for the anabolic steroid 19-norandrosteron following her third-place finish in a World Cup 10-kilometre race in Brusson, Italy on Dec. 12. The testing was conducted by the Italian anti-doping agency.

 When an athlete is tested, the urine is divided into an A and B sample. Smigun's A sample showed norandrosteron levels of 6.4 nanograms per millilitre, according to published reports, and was deemed a positive test.

 In the vast majority of cases, the B sample confirms the A finding and the athlete in penalized.

 In this case, the International Ski Federation (FIS) delivered Smigun's B sample to an International Olympic Committee-approved lab in Germany and this time, the urine yielded a finding under the legal limit, enabling Smigun to compete at the Olympic Games, much to the exasperation of many of her competitors.

 Smigun was thankful for the reprieve, while denying she ever used steroids, but the rest of the ski world, especially the Canadian delegation, reacted angrily, suggesting that a conspiracy might be afoot. The Canadian contingent is pushing WADA to investigate.

 "Is the testing process accurate or relevant?" asked Canadian team coach Dave Wood. "Is the lab that conducted both these tests incompetent, corrupt or both?"

 Cross-country skiing has come under increased suspicion of rampant drug use, particularly after two of its stars, Mika Myllyla and Harri Kirvesniemi, and four other Finns, tested positive last winter. The use of the hormone EPO, which boosts endurance by increasing red blood cell production, is thought to be widespread in the sport. Members of the Canadian team, led by World Cup medallist Beckie Scott, have expressed their suspicions of the FIS' real intentions in fighting doping. There have been suggestions that FIS tries to protect its top athletes.

 In a recent e-mail to Pound, Scott said of the Smigun affair: "Does it not seem just a little bit suspect ... that the same organization (FIS) we have been taking aim at for illegal behaviour has now just conducted a test of their own and clears Kristina in time for the Olympics?"

 IOC president Jacques Rogge released his opening ceremony speech last night. In it, he stressed that doping is perhaps the key issue in sport right now.

 "Today, we stand at a crossroads. The development of biotechnology and genetics offers medicine incomparable prospects; and the risk of a slide toward doping is all the greater. I call upon the whole sports community to wake up to this terrible danger."

2002 Games News Coverage