Juerg Capol Says Dopers Should Get 5-Year Suspension

Juerg Capol © FIS

February 10, 2010 (Canmore, Alberta) – Juerg Capol, director of cross country racing for FIS, said in an interview on Friday that the current two year sanction for athletes caught doping should be increased to five years. This measure would keep punished athletes out of at least one Olympic Games. U.S. World Cup coach, Justin Wadsworth, said five-year sanctions for a first offence would be a major step forward. “A five-year ban would mean athletes miss an Olympics, and that’s a motivation money-wise for a lot of athletes,” he said. However it is up to the national federations who sit on the International Ski Federation council. More on Capol’s interview by Michael Tutton of the The Canadian Press here.

1 Comments For This Post

1. Marty Hall, NH, USA says:
   February 10th, 2010 at 1:42 pm

   Finally, someone with some clout speaks out—how about you Vegard—you were vocal back in your racing days—I find it interesting that in the past few days we have had more written about doping from every direction then we have in the last 4 years—and the Olympics haven’t even started, yet. What becomes important is that the actions being talked of here—stiffer penalty’s and blood profiling get acted upon immediately so that we aren’t having these same conversations 4 years from now—because political decisions in international sport move very slowly—that is the history. This problem has been around since the early 70s–it is a tough one–but these people are cheaters and liars and have stolen so much from their fellow competitors and the sportt–hese are good steps to really slow them down—but, they have to get done—that is the bottom line.

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