TUESDAY.FEB.26,2002
OLYMPICS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5B
Skiers fail drug tests, lose medals
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Olympic leaders have a stern warning for athletes using performance-enhancing drugs.
"We are on their heels," Dr. Arne Ljungqvist said Sunday in announcing the games' biggest drug bust since Ben Johnson and giving the Salt Lake City Olympics a final jolt of controversy.
The drug, darbepoetin, boosts the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen to muscles. It is so new that it isn't on the International Olympic Committee's list of banned substances, but officials said it was covered as a "related substance" and acted swiftly.
Three cross-country skiers,including multi-medalists Larissa Lazutina of Russia and Johann Muehlegg of Spain,were thrown out of the Winter Games and each stripped of a gold medal for using a drug designed to help kidney patients avoid anemia.
"This is a strong statement to those who say we are far behind," said Ljungqvist, chief of the IOC's medical commission.
After Lazutina's disqualification, silver medalist Gabriella Paruzzi of Italy was awarded the gold in the 30K. Stefania Belmondo of Italy got the silver and Bente Skari of Norway moved up to bronze.
Also testing positive for the drug was Olga Danilova, a teammate of Lazutina. All three athletes were tossed out of the games on the final day of competition. They were the first Winter Olympic athletes caught for drugs since 1988, and the biggest stars involved in an Olympic drug scandal since Johnson tested positive for steroids after winning the 100 meters at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.
Lazutina, 36, was forced to give up her victory in Sunday's 30-kilometer classical race and her record-tying 10th Olympic medal. She was allowed to keep the two silver medals she won in the 15K freestyle and the 10K combined event.
Danilova was disqualified from an eighth-place finish in the 30K, but she will keep a gold and silver won earlier.
Muehlegg, who had won three gold medals at these games, was ordered to return the one from Saturday's 50K
classical race. He keeps his golds from the 30K freestyle and the 10K pursuit.
The IOC said it could not strip the other medals by the athletes had passed those drug tests. But IOC president Jacques Rogge said those medals are tainted.
"Technically, they are Olympic champions," Rogge said. "Morally, it is a totally different issue."
Coming into the Salt Lake City Games, only five drug cases had been confirmed since the first Winter Olympics in 1924. But for Salt Lake City, officials set up the most rigorous Olympic testing program ever.
Darbepoetin is similar to the banned hormone erythropoietin, or EPO. Marketed by Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen Corp. under the name Aranesp, it was approved in September by the Food and Drug Administration to help patients with chronic kidnev failure battle anemia.
Muehlegg, 31, said he could not understand the test results.
"I've been skiing for 10 years in World Cups and I've been through 25 controls, and there's never been a problem," Muehlegg told Spanish radio.
He had been picked to carry the Spanish flag at the closing ceremony, but was replaced by skier Maria Jose Rienda Contreras.
The Royal Palace called off a welcome-home reception for Muehlegg yesterday and said Wednesday's scheduled ceremony for Muehlegg would be put off until further notice, but gave no reason why.
Lazutina was disqualified from the women's relay that day for high levels of performance-boosting hemoglobin, a blood molecule that helps carry oxygen to muscles. She passed another test Sunday, allowing her to compete, but then the results from another sample were announced.
The Spanish and Russian Olympic delegations challenged the process by which the test results were validated. All three positive results came from out-of-competition tests on Thursday.
Muehlegg's disqualification means Mikhail Ivanov of Russia will trade in his 50K silver for gold, while Estonia's Andrus Veerpalu moves up to silver and fourth-place finisher Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset of Norway gets the bronze.
Russians resent Olympic outcome
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Though the Winter Olympics are over, resentment still runs high in Russia.
A report on state television RTR summing up the games detailed Russians' disappointment and anger over their medal tally and decisions they believe denied victory to some athletes and devalued that of others. It took some swipes at American culture as well.
"They were the most expensive Olympics for America, the most difficult for the Russian team and the most scandalous in the past 20 years," RTR's reporter said in Salt Lake City. "But Americans enjoyed the Olympics. They say it was a real show, and a show doesn't have to be bad or good, it just has to be huge."
The final blow for Russia came
Sunday when cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina was stripped of her gold medal in the 30-kilometer classical race after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug intended to help kidney patients avoid anemia.
Russian skier Olga Danilova was also disqualified after testing positive for the drug, darbepoetin.
Russian Olympic Committee chairman Leonid Tyagachev told a news conference in Salt Lake City that those disqualifications would be appealed to the international sports arbitration court in Lausanne, Switzerland, "to defend the honor of our athletes."
The head of the Russian Olympic Committee's anti-doping service, Nikolai Durman, sharply criticized the moves against Lazutina and Danilova.
"The fact that they made such a
But Russia's Olympic officials also came in for some criticism from political circles.
Sergei Mironov, head of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said the Russian Olympic Committee was naive in not objecting to an agreement that called for NHL referees to officiate games in which more than 50 percent of the players were league stars. That included the semifinals and the final.
decision is a disgrace. It's a stain on the qualifications of the IOC medical commission," he told television network NTV.
"How did it happen that the final matches were judged by officials from the NHL, who are practically representatives of the two countries Canada and the United States? When a match in which the United States and Russia play is judged by the
United States, that's complete nonsense," he said Monday on the Echo of Moscow radio station.
Russians were first angered at the games in the controversy over the figure skating gold medal won by Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were awarded a second gold following wide complaints and a French judge's statement that she was pressured to vote for the Russians.
"It seems to me that it's necessary for our sports organizations ... to approach matters more carefully," Mironov said.
inen, skater Irina Slutskaya finished second behind American Sarah Hughes and Russia unsuccessfully demanded a second gold for her. The United States' 3-2 victory over Russia in the hockey quarterfinals brought complaints of biased officiating.
Paralympics share venues follow Salt Lake City Games
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — The Paralympics begin March 7 and organizers hope the spirit of the Winter Games will carry over to the 10-day event for the physically challenged.
"I think people sometimes think that the Paralympics are more what the Olympics used to be—pure sport," said wheelchair racer and cross-country skier Candace Cable, who has competed in the Paralympics since 1984.
Rather than compare the two games, director Xavier Gonzalez wants the Paralympics to extend the excitement of the Olympics through March 16 when they end.
Paralympians will compete on the same venues and live in the same housing Olympic athletes stayed in during the Salt Lake City Games. They will use Rice-Eccles stadium for their opening ceremony and light a fire in the same cauldron.
"We don't try to match the Olympics in scale and in spectacle," said Joedy Lister, ceremony producer. "They do that very well, and we could never match that."
A close relationship between the two games affords the Paralympics "more profile, better venues, better events, a lot more support than in the past," Gonzalez said.
NHL players may play in 2006
The Associated Press
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah The United States couldn't repeat 1980. Canada finally put 1952 to rest.
But after the success of the Salt Lake City Olympic hockey tournament, it is the 2006 Games that could benefit the most.
The riveting tournament featured a dream finale (at least for North Americans) between Canada and the United States and one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history.
The Salt Lake City Olympics not only erased the Canadians' medal-less flop in the 1998 Nagano Games and enabled the Americans to save face for their chair-smashing antics, they put considerable pressure on the NHL to shut down for the Turin Games.
So, how can the NHL say no to the 2006 Olympics?
NHL commissioner Gary
Bettman was noncommittal about the league's participation, saying he first wants to study these Olympics. Of course, Bettman spoke before the league reaped a decade's worth of good will and publicity with Canada's 5-2 victory Sunday over the United States in the most-watched gold medal game since the Americans" "Miracle on Ice" triumph in 1980.
"Everybody's so balanced now," Canadian forward Steve Yzerman said. "We're all too balanced now for any team to dominate. I just hope they keep the NHL players in the Olympics."
Now, Bettman will find it difficult not to go to Italy, especially when his own players are saying how much the Olympics means to them and the league.
U. S. goalie Mike Richter agreed.
exposing international hockey to the North American audience," he said. "If you can work it out so it does not disrupt the schedule too much, and that's a big if, then it's a great thing."
"It was a great success for
The NHL schedule resumes Tuesday night with 13 games, making teammates of players who just days earlier were on opposing sides. One of the games, New Jersey at the New York Rangers, features the Devils' Martin Brodeur vs. the Rangers' Richter, the opposing goalies in the gold-medal game.
The Detroit Red Wings sent the most players to the games 10, including four evenly split between the teams in the gold-medal game.
The Olympic finish wasn't so great for the Americans, yet they still won the country's first Olympic hockey medal since 1980, all without breaking a single chair.
Greeks begin preparing for 2004 Olympics in Athens
The Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece The electronic clock counting down to the 2004 Summer Olympics slips below 900 days today.
But the real measure of the preparations — the anxiety level — climbs ever higher as the days tick off.
With the Salt Lake City flame extinguished, the return of the games to their ancient birthplace becomes the priority for the International Olympic Committee.
Olympic Committee.
The home stretch might be as tense as the lost years since Athens was awarded the games in 1997. What the IOC hoped would be a glorious homecoming has become a nerve-fraying scramble to overcome construction delays, solve logistical headaches and calm outbursts from Greek officials under pressure from the committee.
These are the typical problems of almost every major project undertaken in the European Union's poorest nation. This time, however, they're being played out on an Olympic scale.
"We really have to keep pressure on Athens because, of course, they are more delayed and they still have more problems to resolve than Sydney at the same time," said Denis Oswald, Athens' top IOC coordinator.
Work has begun on some of the long-delayed venues. The IOC, which plans its next Athens inspection in April, has been pleased to see construction finally under way.
The main IOC worries have shifted to other issues — particularly a glaring shortage of hotel space. Nearly 3,000 more rooms are needed for the Olympic family — sports federation officials, sponsors and others involved in the games.
Cruise ships have already been promised as floating hotels for VIPS, but it's doubtful nearby ports can handle any more vessels. But the hotel shortfall raises questions about whether many spectators will be effectively shut out from the Athens area.
Residents, meanwhile, continue to fight against Olympic intrusions in their neighborhoods. They have filed injunctions with the highest administrative court, the Council of State, to stop construction, holding up progress of several Olympics-related facilities.
In a victory for the government, the court recently approved construction of the 5,000-seat weightlifting venue in the western suburb of Nikea.
Some of the stiffest opposition comes from the seaside areas of Paleo Faliron and Hellenikon, where the proposed tram will tear up one of the city's last boardwalks. Many venues are to be built at the old airport in Hellenikon, but delays in clearing the airstrip of planes has stalled construction.
Premier Costas Simitis called for Athenians to be patient.
"I want to invite all our fellow citizens, who today are hassled by these works to have patience, to have understanding and to back this collective effort," Simitis said while touring an interchange that will connect two main avenues in an effort to ease Athens' chronic traffic problems.
Also yesterday, Olympic organizers issued a commemorative pin and unveiled a floral display to mark the 900-day countdown to the games. Aug. 13-29, 2004. A new pin will be released every 100 days.
The flower arrangement — 2,000 chrysanthemums - adorned the entrance to the all-marble stadium where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.
Organizers of the 2004 Olympics spent time in Salt Lake City to gain more firsthand experience about staging the games. Today, the 2004 team plans to move its headquarters from central Athens to larger facilities in a converted garment factory in a northwestern suburb.
It seems an appropriate place to ride out the turbulent final leg to the 2004 Games: The area is near the epicenter of a major earthquake three years ago.
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