yet another story of injustice

[kobayashi]

poor beckie scott, she was the first canadian to ever win a cross country medal of any kind and now it looks as if it should be gold, but she may never get it.

i don't understand cheating in sports. what's the point?
is there a lot of money out there in endorsements for russian cross country skiiers?
somehow i doubt it.
where's the honor in winning something outside of the rules? something that isn't yours?
i've never understood why.

from http://www.canoe.ca/2002GamesColumnistsArchive/jones_feb26-sun.html
Tuesday, February 26, 2002


Still goin' for gold


Vermilion's Scott fights to have her medal upgraded

By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun

SALT LAKE CITY -- The 2002 Olympic Winter Games may be over, but Canada hasn't stopped going for the gold.

And if there was any justice - especially if the Olympic court of public opinion was still open - Canada's Beckie Scott would be coming home with a medal upgraded to gold, just like the one Jamie Sale and David Pelletier are bringing back.

"We've put forward a request to the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Association for full protocol testing on the Feb. 15 blood and urine samples from the two Russian skiers who finished ahead of Beckie Scott,'' said Mark Lawry, executive director of sport and programming for the Canadian Olympic Association, here yesterday.

"We've asked the IOC and the WADA for full testing for the substance darbepoetin.''

Larissa Lazutina of Russia tied an Olympic record Sunday with her 10th medal by winning the 30-km classic but tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug darbepoetin, forfeited the medal and was booted out of the Olympics. Doping control also found traces of the drug in her teammate Olga Danilova. The two had finished 1-2 in the race in which Scott finished third.

Another cross-country skier, Johann Muehlegg of Spain, who won three golds at these Games, also tested positive for the same drug and was forced to forfeit the gold - but just the one from Sunday's race.

"I'm happy they were caught,'' said Scott, who left here yesterday for a World Cup event in Finland and is expected to issue a statement from there.

Her coach Dave Wood said before he left here that he'll "fight like hell'' to get her the gold.

COA TAKES UP THE FIGHT

Now the COA has taken up the fight.

"We believe a partial screen testing of the urine and blood had been taken and not a full test for this particular substance,'' said Lowry of the stamina-boosting drug that prompts bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.

"We've asked this be done as quickly and as expediently as possible. We're pushing all the key players we can.''

The Vermilion skier clearly called her shot when she gave The Sun the story in two words after she won bronze in the five-kilometre pursuit.

A strong advocate of wholesale drug investigation and cleanup in her sport, Scott went out of her way to let Canadians know she competed clean.

"I can stand on the podium and wear my medal and know that I did it. I was successful and I was clean. I won this on my own. I'm burning natural gas in my engine.''

After the media mob had cleared I asked her if she thought the two Russians who had finished ahead of her competed clean.

"No comment,'' she said.

Canada's IOC member, Dick Pound, who heads WADA, read those comments and suggested she was out of line.

The Canadian cross-country skiers had laughed out loud when they heard Pound say that the percentage of athletes competing clean at the Olympics was in the high 90s.

Pound now owes Scott a public apology. And he owes her everything he can do to get her the gold.

"Beckie Scott has become well-known around the world as the leading proponent of addressing the continuing problem in her sport,'' said Lawry. "Her perception and concern are very justified.''

The ridiculous thing here is that these drug cheaters only lose their medals for the events in which they tested positive.

The Russian relay team was disqualified from the field when Lazutina failed a pre-race test with hemoglobin levels over 16.0.

GOING HOME WITH MEDALS

Lazutina is still going home with two silvers, Danilova with a gold and a silver and Muehlegg is going home with two golds.

They've been busted as drug cheats. But they can keep their other medals from the Olympics like they were as pure as the driven snow?

"They may technically be Olympic champions,'' said new IOC boss Jacques Rogge. "Morally it's a very different issue. It takes more than crossing the finish line first to be a champion. You will never be a champion if you don't respect the rules of doping.''

Nice words. But Rogge, who showed plenty of action when Sale & Pelletier's story had stolen the focus away from his first Olympics, needs to take action. Scott competed like a champion. And she's going home with a medal that said she wasn't one.

If this was Day 4, the day of the Sale & Pelletier long program, the Beckie Scott business would be just about as big a story as the figure skating flap made the two Edmonton Royal Glenora skaters famous.

"If this had happened then, it would have likely put the whole Games endurance sports under the microscope at these Olympics,'' said Lawry.

There would have been a public outcry.

The Games are over and the focus on them will fade fast, but Beckie Scott still deserves that public outcry. And a gold.

 

[sulawesigirl4]

hmmm. Unfortunately for her, there is no way they can strip the other competitors of their medals if they weren't tested positive before those races. As it is, Muelhegg and Lazutina did have their last golds taken from them on the last day of the games for testing positive. But the other medals...nope. I don't think the IOC can legally take them away.

 

[80sU2isBest]

Originally posted by sulawesigirl4:
hmmm. Unfortunately for her, there is no way they can strip the other competitors of their medals if they weren't tested positive before those races. As it is, Muelhegg and Lazutina did have their last golds taken from them on the last day of the games for testing positive. But the other medals...nope. I don't think the IOC can legally take them away.

I agree.

 

[MissZooropa]

Originally posted by sulawesigirl4:
hmmm. Unfortunately for her, there is no way they can strip the other competitors of their medals if they weren't tested positive before those races. As it is, Muelhegg and Lazutina did have their last golds taken from them on the last day of the games for testing positive. But the other medals...nope. I don't think the IOC can legally take them away.

What is wrong here is that what they was doped with has to be taken 4-6 weeks before and during the competitions to be useful so everyone KNOWS that they were doped even when they won their other gold medals but somehow the tests didn't show it and therefor they can't take the golds away from them.
But why Lazutina was allowed to start at all in the 30km is beyond my mind since she was tested positive before the relay(?) and was stopped from starting there just a few days earlier.

What I personally feel sorry about is that during the 30km men, the first ski event, our best competitor, alone, tried to go with M?hlegg since he was going for the gold, in the impossible tempo and therefor crashed totally because it was....impossible in a fair way. I don't say that he would have won or even got a medal but from looking at the records this year he had a _really_ good chance to be at the top and now everything broke down for the rest of the games, with a good help from a cheater. It hurts to know that it MIGHT have ended in a totally different way.

 

[sulawesigirl4]

yeah, I'm not arguing that doping should be allowed, believe me. It is beyond me how any athlete could live with themselves after winning a medal by cheating. I'm just saying that as the proof stands right now, there is most likely no way to remove the medals. I guess we can only hope that in the future, the IOC is more stringent about testing and that the playing field is level so all competitors have a fair chance.

 

[MissZooropa]

I didn't think you were Sula.

Sorry if it sounded like that in my respond. I would be surpriced if you would be pro it.

I am totally with you about the concience(?), how they can live with the fact they are cheating. M?hleggs comment about if the second test would prove he was doped. "oh well, if it is, then I have two gold, instead of three" It didn't touch him the slightest, it was like he thought it was ok because he passed with cheating and at least got to medals that way.

 

[kobayashi]

this is getting ridiculous.

from http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/news/dopingaustrians020228
Blood transfusion bags found in Austrian Nordic skiers' residence
Cross country doping scandal widens
Last Updated: Thu Feb 28 16:21:32 EST 2002
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - The Salt Lake Olympic doping scandal embroiling some of the biggest names in cross country skiing may widen to implicate Austrian Nordic skiers.

Dr. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee opened an investigation into the discovery of used blood transfusion bags at a home Austrian Nordic skiers stayed at during the Winter Games. Rogge said that "all scientific techniques" would be deployed in the investigation, "including DNA testing."

The bags -- and blood transfusion apparatus, glucose bottles and vitamins -- were discovered by house cleaners on Wednesday after the departure of the 10 Austrian skiers from the home in Midway, Utah, which is close to Soldier Hollow, the Olympic venue for Nordic events.

Wasatch County Sheriff Mike Spano turned the evidence over to doping authorities for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Spano said the bags had been drained of everything but traces of blood, suggesting they had been used. That residual blood is being tested for the presence of banned substances.

"I didn't monkey with it," Spano said. "I had gloves on, we stuffed it in a large bag, I washed my hands of it and immediately turned it over to SLOC. They are so up on this doping."

The Austrian team won three medals in Nordic events at the Salt Lake Games. Christian Hoffman and Mikhail Botvinov won silver and bronze, respectively, in the men's 30-kilometre event, and Wolfgang Perner was the bronze medallist in the men's 10km biathlon sprint.

Cross country skiing was first tainted with a major doping scandal at the 2001 world championships at Lahti, Finland, where a number of the host country's top skiers were banned for doping infractions.

The profile of the problem was raised significantly at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, where two of the Games' biggest stars, Spain's Johann Muehlegg and Russia's Larissa Lazutina, were stripped of gold medals after testing positive for darbepoetin, a substance that stimulates the production of red blood cells, allowing more oxygen to be carried to muscles.

"Conducting blood transfusions to enhance performance is not only unethical and prohibited by the Olympic movement anti-doping code, but is also extremely dangerous to the health of the athlete," the IOC said Thursday.

None of the Austrians failed doping tests at the Olympics.

 

[sulawesigirl4]

gah, I heard about that on the radio this morning, kobesan. Bizarre.