November 23, 2009 (Beitostolen, Norway) – The meeting last Friday held in Beitostolen, Norway of at least 20 cross-country ski coaches from around the world, was no regular gathering filled with conviviality or small talk. Word is breaking in major dailies and on the web that this Nordic world gathering had a far more serious agenda to discuss. According to reports by Canadian Press (CP), CTV Olympic news, and our own sources we’re now able to tell you what we have learned.

According to our sources the meeting was organized by former US Olympian and current member of the US Ski Team staff, Justin Wadsworth, to consider ways of addressing some of the on-going doping problems in the sport of cross-country skiing. Wadsworth, the husband of Olympic gold medalist Beckie Scott, said coaches from Germany, Switzerland, Norway, the United States, Canada, Sweden and Japan attended.

In an interview with CP, Wadsworth was quoted as saying, “our coaches have been communicating with the head Norwegian coaches, the Swiss coaches and we’re trying to rally other countries to have stronger sanctions against the Russians.”

One conclusion of the meeting was that coaches would ask their individual federations to pressure FIS for more direct actions, especially with the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games on the horizon. Each country will also approach the FIS cross-country committee chair – the famed xc ski athlete Vegard Ulvang – to air their growing concerns.

By last Saturday evening, even FIS President, Gian-Franco Kasper, known as a straight talker, was speaking of sanctions against the Russian Ski Federation. Associated Press reported that Kasper said that “we (at the FIS) are not happy about what is going on in the Russian Ski Federation” and that ” if things don’t change we will have to take action against the Russian NOC or whoever is responsible.” Kasper’s comments were made while he was in Moscow for an alpine skiing event.

Four Russian cross-country skiers were banned for two years from the sport after testing positive for EPO, while three of their biathletes have also been given bans for this season. Russia was rocked last winter, with positive doping tests against Julia Tchepalova, thrice an Olympic gold medalist and Yevgeny Dementiev, also a gold medalist – both well known in Nordic circles.

At this hour, SkiTrax has been unable to verify if doping tests were held in Beitostolen at the first World Cup race of the season despite repeated phone calls and a flurry of emails. Former US and Canadian ski coach Marty Hall said moment’s ago that, “I’d find it hard to believe that they didn’t test at the first [World Cup] race, and that’s the thing that bothers me the most.” However, some sports experts have also said that often testing is not done at the initial races of the year.

But Hall doesn’t agree. “It’s not right if FIS didn’t test at the first world cup of the year. It would be proper to establish blood profiles at the first race. I mean, FIS is the largest stakeholder in this whole thing, and I think that even they’re part of the problem.” Since the days of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, Hall has been outspoken about doping in sport. A practice that many say has been going on with certain nations for decades. One source who did not want to go on record points the finger at two clubs in Russia, that have proved many athletes to the national team for years.

The general secretary of the Russian Ski Federation was quoted as saying, ” that the doping is isolated to a handful of athletes, rather than being a “team wide” issue. He also was quoted as saying, “Russia is a large country and “to control everybody, it’s absolutely not possible.”

Dave Wood, long -time Canadian XC coach told us in a phone interview today, “If they didn’t test for doping at the first race, I’d like to know why.” Wood is also strident about a clean sport, but cautioned too, that “a lot of these allegations have been made about us too, in Canada, especially when we started to get results, it’s just very important to have the evidence.” Wood will leave Canada on Wednesday to join the FIS Tour.

SkiTrax will continue to monitor this story.