In a surreal combination of circumstances Sunday, Russian Larissa Lazutina accepted congratulations for winning the gold medal in the women’s 30-kilometer cross-country ski race at Soldier Hollow, while 60 miles away the International Olympic Committee was voting to strip her of the medal for a blood-doping violation.
Lazutina, 36, whose victory giving her 10 medals would have made her the most decorated Winter Games athlete of all time, became the central focus of a breathtaking scandal infecting the sport and staining the final day of the 19th Winter Olympics. Lazutina’s expulsion from the Games was announced only a few hours after she claimed Sunday’s triumph was revenge for being forced out of the women’s relay Thursday.
The IOC also stripped Spanish skier Johann Muehlegg of his gold medal in the men’s 50k–one of three golds he won–and expelled him, and also expelled Lazutina’s Russian teammate Olga Danilova from the Games, without taking away her medals, all for testing positive for a new drug that is similar to previously known blood-doping substances used to enhance peformance.
“We have to conduct this fight,” said Arne Ljungqvist, acting chairman of the IOC medical commission. “They should know we are on their heels. This is a very important message to those who claim we are always far behind.”
The harsh afternoon revelations in Salt Lake City were set against a morning backdrop of cheer at the final individual event of the Games. Thousands of fans rang cowbells and waved flags at Soldier Hollow as Lazutina crushed the field and Nina Kemppel of Anchorage, the best female American cross-country skier ever, completed her Olympic career with the finest U.S. result ever.
Yet hours before the violations were officially announced, skiers were abuzz, speaking of how drug cheaters had tarnished their sport.
“It’s tough on our sport,” said Kemppel, who is a four-time Olympian and owns 18 national titles. “It takes precedence over great performances. It’s kind of sad this thing overshadows the Olympics.”
After Lazutina, who defiantly called the almost sure-thing-gold Russian relay team’s ejection from Thursday’s race “a tragedy,” was removed, Italian Gabriella Paruzzi was awarded the gold medal, her countrywoman Stefania Belmondo was elevated to silver and Norwegian Bente Skari was raised from fourth place to bronze. Danilova raced and finished eighth, but was removed from the final standings.
Muehlegg, 31, is German but competes with a Spanish passport. He moved to Madrid when he couldn’t break into the top echelon of German skiers. At the Games he won the men’s 30k and 10k, and he passed drug tests. However, Muehlegg was given an out-of-competition drug test Thursday. He won the 50k Saturday before the positive result came back. Lazutina and Danilova were tested Thursday, but results did not come back and hearings on the cases were not completed before Sunday’s race.
During the Games, the medical staff conducted more than 1,200 blood tests, according to Patrick Schamasch of the IOC’s medical commission. Athletes with elevated rates of hemoglobin, exceeding 17.5 units for men and 16.0 for women, were subsequently given urine tests.
In these three cases, according to an IOC report, the athletes tested positive for darbepoetin, a substance that is so new that it is not on the IOC’s banned list. But it is regarded as the equivalent of EPO, or erythropoetin, which stimulates the production of red blood cells “and can therefore enhance performance in endurance sports.” Athletes are given a blanket warning not to ingest any performance-enhancing agent.
Ljungqvist, who is from Sweden, defended the organization’s severe sanctions even though the drug is not on the banned list. Ljungqvist said the product has only been on the market a few months–created to treat anemia–but said IOC policy allows for penalizing athletes who use drugs similar to banned substances.
“This enables us to keep up with new production of drugs around the world,” Ljungqvist said. “This is a very strong message the IOC is sending. We are very saddened, but we had to act.”
Muehlegg attended his own hearing, and according to the IOC report, pointed out he had passed other drug tests. He suggested failing this one might be related to a change in diet.
At another hearing, Russian delegation officials representing the skiers challenged the validity of the testing. IOC Director-General Francois Carrard said they have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
When Lazutina’s hemoglobin reading came in high Thursday and the Russian 4-x-5k relay team was yanked, Russian Olympic Committee President Leonid Tyagachev blamed the elevated number on her menstrual cycle. Soon after, the Russians held a public gripe session complaining about unfair Games officiating in several sports, threatened to withdraw from the Closing Ceremony and insisted their teams were “clean.”
Ljungqvist said none of the blood tests matter, anyway, because Lazutina flunked the more damaging urine test.
“They are of no major interest in the case when the urine contains banned samples,” he said. “It’s irrelevant in this case because there was a positive urine test as a follow-up.”
While Lazutina was complaining that such tests make athletes feel “like criminals,” she was being convicted. Sunday afternoon, Vitaly Smirnov, an IOC vice president from Russia, was more conciliatory that he was Thursday.
“We are against any kind of use of forbidden substances,” Smirnov said. “I’m very disappointed [in Lazutina]. I don’t know what happened.” Still, he held out the possibility the Russian delegation would appeal the decisions affecting Lazutina and Danilova.
Muehlegg’s disqualification turns Russian Mikhail Ivanov’s silver into gold and Estonia’s Andrus Veerpalu’s bronze into silver. Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset of Norway takes bronze.
Muehlegg keeps his other medals. Carrard said it would be illegal for the IOC to strip them because he passed drug tests at the time. Danilova won gold in the 5k pursuit, ahead of Lazutina’s silver. Danilova took silver in the 10k. They get to keep those medals. However, IOC President Jacques Rogge made his feelings clear.
“They may technically be Olympic champions,” he said. “Morally, it’s a very different issue. It takes more than crossing the finish line first to be a champion.”
It was very much a world of contrasts for Olympic cross-country skiers Sunday. At Soldier Hollow, in Midway, snow fell in thick flakes and obscured the Wasatch Mountains as skiers battled the hilly and high terrain at 5,600 feet. Fans in the stands and sprinkled around the course roared. Polka music played over a loudspeaker and horse-drawn sleigh rides were taken.
Lazutina’s time of 1 hour 29.09 seconds, was 1:48 faster than Paruzzi. Kemppel, 15th after the disqualification of the Russians, bested Martha Rockwell’s 16th in 1972 and finished in 1:37:08. Wendy Wagner, also of Anchorage, Alaska, was 23rd. Barb Jones of Bozeman, Mont., was 35th.
“That was the hardest race of my life,” said Kemppel, 31, who plans to retire after the World Cup season and attend graduate school. “I didn’t have much more left.”
Kemppel said she grew up believing a lesson her grandmother taught her and applied it to medalists who cheated. “Real winners never cheat,” she said. “Cheaters never win. They’re not winners in my book.”
Sunday’s results
Cross Country Skiing
At Midway, Utah; Women’s 30Km
1. Gabriella Paruzzi, Italy, 1:30:57.1.
2. Stefania Belmondo, Italy, 1:31:01.6.
3. Bente Skari, Norway, 1:31:36.3.
4. Anita Moen, Norway, 1:31:37.3.
5. Valentina Shevchenko, Ukraine, 1:33:03.1.
6. Viola Bauer, Germany, 1:33:25.1.
7. Kristina Smigun, Estonia, 1:33:52.7.
8. Vibeke W Skofterud, Norway, 1:35:02.3.
9. Julija Tchepalova, Russia, 1:35:37.4.
10. Natascia Leonardi Cortesi, Switzerland, 1:35:46.8.
23. Wendy Wagner, Park City, Utah, 1:39:54.8.
NR: Aelin Peterson, Fairbanks, Alaska, DNS.
