November 18, 2009 – Renowned Olympic and World Championship announcer Kjell-Erik Kristiansen commented recently at Langrenn.com on the doping situation in cross-country skiing given the recent suspensions of several top Russian xc skiers and biathletes including Olympic xc ski champions Julia Tchepalova and Evgueni Dementiev.

In this Olympic year we’re reminded of Russia’s previous doping problems at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, UT when both Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazhutina were disqualified for doping and stripped of their medals. Following a 2-year process Canada’s Beckie Scott was eventually awarded the gold medal in the women’s 10km pursuit.

Kristiansen talks about the pressures on skiers from the team of medical players and others behind the skiers who must be held accountable and sanctioned as well if the “Sick Doping System” is to be fixed. “I do not think for one second that young girls like Natalia Matveeva and Nina Rysin are able to self-dope with either EPO or anything else that you have to have medical knowledge to use.” Kristiansen calls on FIS to lead the process of cleaning up the sport.

Cross-country skiing is not alone in this dilemma as cycling has been in the doping limelight for some time and Montreal sports lawyer Patrice M. Brunet, who chaired the three-person American Arbritration Agency (AAA) panel that ultimately found Floyd Landis guilty of doping at the 2006 Tour de France, wrote “Not Without my Entourage”, bluntly calling on sports agencies and governments to hold all perpetrators involved accountable.

US XC Ski Team member Torin Koos has compiled a synopsis of The United States Anti-Doping Agency Annual Report for 2008 which demonstrates the US efforts in the fight against doping.

– For more on Dementiev (in French) click here
– For Kristiansen’s comments (in Swedish) click here and (in French) coming.
– For Brunet’s “Not Without my Entourage” (in English) click here.

State of Clean Sport in American Athletics
compiled by Torin Koos

The United States Anti-Doping Agency recently released the Annual Report on the state of sport. The 2008 season brought a sharp focus to Olympic hopeful summer sport athletes, resulting in 8,532 doping control tests and 24 athlete sanctions. USADA began in 2001, motivated by the vision to “preserve the integrity of competition, inspire true sport and protect the rights of United States athletes.” In 2008 USADA spent $12.36 million overseeing the administration, legal work, research and drug testing for all hopeful Olympic, Paralympic and Pan American Game athletes.

In 2008, American alpine, cross-country and snowboard athletes were tested 424 times by USADA. In comparison, track and field had 1,965 controls, while biathlon had 44.

USADA’s biggest initiative centered in identifying and testing 2008 Beijing Olympic hopefuls with unannounced, out of competition drug controls. A total 2,925 tests were performed in the six-month lead-up to the Beijing Games. During the Olympics, no American tested positive. The U.S. also led the nation’s medal count, winning 110 medals, a fact the Annual Report used bolded text and a pulled quote to highlight.

2008 saw USADA roll-out two anti-doping education-based initiatives. In February, USADA launched the Pilot Testing Program. The Agency invited twelve athletes to voluntarily partner with it to undergo a series of blood and urine collections prior to the 2008 Games to first establish individual baseline values, then monitor changes from a longitudinal perspective. The athlete-members who participated were:

– Kristin Armstrong (Cycling)
– Jeremiah Bishop (Cycling)
– Bryan Clay (Track & Field)
– Natalie Coughlin (Swimming)
– Allyson Felix (Track & Field)
– Tyson Gay (Track & Field)
– Sarah Hammer (Cycling)
– Michael Phelps (Swimming)
– Christine Thorburn (Cycling)
– Dara Torres (Swimming)
– Dee Dee Trotter (Track & Field)
– Lauryn Williams (Track and Field)

“My Victory” titled USADA’s second anti-doping education campaign where athletes publically talked about competing clean, the pressures the faced within their sport to cheat, and why they could withstand those pressures.

The 2008 USADA Annual Report Statistics:

Total Tests:
– 8,532 Doping Control Tests
– 7,690 Domestic
– 842 International

In Competition, Training Camp, OOC Tests (No-Advance Notice Testing) Breakdown:

Sport OOC In Comp Camp Total (see chart)
——————————————————————–
All Sport 5416 2953 163 8532

Ski & Snowboard 198 226 0 424

Para Nordic Ski 10 4 0 14

Sanctions:
– Potential Sanction 91
– Resulted No Violation 44
– Athletes Sanctioned 24

USADA Audit Report:
Area: Cost (Rounded, In Millions)

– Drug Testing 6.65
– Legal 1.95
– Research 1.38
– Administration .9

The full annual report can be viewed online at here.