March 05, 2014 (Stockholm, Sweden) – The Swedish investigative TV program “Uppdrag Granskning” (Mission Review) has analyzed thousands of blood tests from professional cross-country skiers taken over the past decade and shown this analysis to experts. The analysis apparently compared hematocrit (HTC), hemoglobin (HB), and reticulocyte (RET) levels; various measures of red blood cells counts.

“I don’t think any of these competitions were clean,” remarked noted American researcher Don Catlin when he looked at the analysis. Catlin headed the anti-doping laboratory at Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Games. Catlin also admits that, despite his lab’s best efforts, “there were a number of athletes who managed to compete while doped.”

Italian expert, Alessandro Donati, looked at variations in HB levels and came to a similar conclusion: “So the difference is too high. The probability of doping is very very, very high”

In Salt Lake, several skiers had high counts of HG in their blood; levels that were just within the permitted limits. The skiers were from Finland, Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Austria.

Uppdrag Granskning spoke to Norway’s Anders Aukland, who won gold in 2002.  He was among those who returned the highest levels of HG at Salt Lake City, but Aukland was evasive when speaking to the journalists about his HG levels, referring them instead to experts like “medical specialists, such as doctors and others…”

Also evasive was Estonian Jaak Mae, a bronze medallist in the 15km classic style race at Salt Lake City and today Secretary General of the Estonian ski Association.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) is taking the figures seriously, however. On the basis of these analyses, they have compiled a list of skiers with questionable blood profiles.

Note: High HG and HTC levels can be indicative of doping with banned red blood cell boosters such as erythropoietin (EPO). This was the case of Canadian rider Genevieve Jeanson who rode for many years without failing a doping test, but showed an abnormally high HTC level at the UCI Hamilton World Championships in 2003. Jeanson eventually tested positive for EPO in 2005 and admitted in 2007 to having doped with EPO “almost all her career,” which began in 1999.

Read the article on Uppdrag Granskning here.