July 22, 2010 – Earlier this spring FIS issued some stern warnings to the Russian Ski Federation: clean up your act and your athletes, or face sanctions and possibly risk being barred from your own country’s Olympics. Elena Välbe is listening. The newly elected president of the Russian Ski Federation has already started cleaning house, beginning with any coach implicated or linked to Russia’s many doping scandals. She’s quoted as telling sports.ru that, “We will publish a list of coaches with which we will not cooperate anymore. Among them there are Anatoly Chepalov, Yury Smirnov and Viktor Baradavka. But there are also many other regional coaches that will be fired.”

Doping has long been a problem in Russia’s cross-country skiing scene. No one is more familiar with the damages of Russian doping than Canada’s decorated xc ski racer, Beckie Scott. Many will remember the controversy and frustration at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah where Scott won bronze behind Russia’s Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazutina who were later revealed as dopers at those Games, depriving Scott of her rightful place atop the podium in the women’s 10km pursuit.
Those positive tests sparked what was to become a multi-year battle for Scott, who was eventually vindicated, first being presented with the silver when Lazutina was convicted of doping and later the gold  when Danilova was also renounced for doping infractions. Scott became the first North American to win Olympic xc skiing gold and a champion for clean sport. She continues her dedication to fair play as a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission.

Another skier, who will likely be taking special notice of this announcement is fellow Canadian Devon Kershaw. In June Kershaw made headlines in his hometown of Sudbury that rippled through the ski world for taking an open and aggressive stance on doping. He criticized FIS for not doing enough to force Russia’s compliance, arguing that financial sanctions would mean nothing to Russia’s multi-million dollar cross-country program, and demanding that they get tougher on the country with such a dubious record.

Välbe herself is no stranger to Russia’s doping history. Her sweep of four gold medals at the 1997 Nordic World Championships in Trondheim was marred by fellow Russian Lyubov Egorova, who tested positive for the banned substance bromantan.

As for today’s Russian athletes, Välbe had this to say: “The athletes themselves have to understand that it is not possible and acceptable to take prohibited substances. The key is discipline, doping is all about discipline. The 2011 World Championships in Oslo will be big test for us. We must build a team towards the Olympics in 2014 Sotchi.”

Read more on sports.ru here.

Read more on langd.se here.