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Fleeing Russian-born Swedish folk hero admits using drugs
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- First, former Olympic hurdles champion Ludmila Engquist disappeared from Sweden. Then her face -- appearing on cereal boxes all over the country -- disappeared from the supermarket shelves. Engquist, born in Russia and a folk hero after winning Olympic and world track titles for her adopted country, fled Sweden after the second doping scandal in her career. "After this, I can probably never live in Sweden again," the 37-year-old athlete said after she admitted using illegal drugs to enhance her performance. "How can I look anyone in the eyes? But it's my own fault." Engquist, who won the Olympic 110-meter hurdles gold in Atlanta in 1996, stunned the nation last weekend with her announcement, which she made because she anticipated positive results from a doping test on Lillehammer's Olympic bobsled track. The famously competitive athlete also said she hated her new sport of bobsledding but couldn't bring herself to quit. "I took drugs secretly, my husband Johan didn't know about it," she said. "I'm telling this because I know that the test will be positive." Her revelations in a country that had its last doping case in track in 1985 caused unprecedented publicity for a female athlete in Sweden -- from page 1 to the editorials to the sports pages. It also ended her quest to become history's first female Summer and Winter Olympic champion. Engquist will be banned at least two years, effectively ending her career, if the test results expected next week prove her right. She also could face a fine and up to two years in prison as prosecutors are investigating possible smuggling charges based on Engquist's admission that she bought the illegal substances when visiting Russia in the summer, then brought them to Sweden. "I bought a few pills and I knew that they contained illegal substances, among them anabolic steroids," Engquist said in widely televised remarks. She disappeared after the Nov. 4 announcement, which was made in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is believed to be in southern Spain, where she owns a house. Most in this Scandinavian nation of some 9 million people quickly moved to disown Engquist, who became a Swedish citizen in 1996 after her marriage. Several upset callers to a radio talk show recently used her Russian last name, Narozhilenko. And officials from Engquist's former track club IFK Lidingo said they want to eliminate her club records and revoke her honorary membership. Cereal producer Axa ordered all boxes featuring Engquist to be removed from store shelves immediately and said it was considering a lawsuit. German automaker Audi and Swedish investment bank Carnegie also dropped their sponsorship deals, along with research company Probi, producer of a health drink that Engquist started using to decrease stomach problems while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. Arne Ljungqvist, a member of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission and chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency and IAAF medical committees, said he wasn't shocked. "I recognize the pattern. We have seen an increasing number of doping cases with athletes over the hill trying to stay on top by doing things like this," said Ljungqvist, referring to earlier doping cases in track and field involving Dieter Baumann, Linford Christie, Dennis Mitchell and Javier Sotomayor. Engquist received a four-year drug ban after failing a test for steroids during a meet at Lievin, France, in February 1993, but maintained that her vitamin supplement had been spiked by her previous husband, Nikolai Narozhilenko. The ban was lifted by the Russian courts, and the IAAF, world track's governing body, reinstated her in December 1995 under its "exceptional-circumstances rule." Bengt Westerberg, chairman of the Swedish Athletics Association, said Engquist was tested 18 times between June 1996, when she became a Swedish citizen, and early 2000. "I don't think any other top Swedish athlete has been tested so many times," he said. Engquist, who made a stunning comeback in 1999 after being diagnosed with breast cancer, retired from track just two months before last year's Summer Olympics in Sydney because of calf problems. She won the 100-meter hurdles at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo when competing for the Soviet Union and in the 1997 worlds in Athens, Greece, for Sweden. She captured her last medal in track, a bronze at the 1999 worlds in Seville, Spain, just a few months after she had surgery to remove her right breast. Then she announced last year that she was starting bobsled training because her dream was to become the first female Olympic summer and winter champion. American Eddie Eagan became an Olympic boxing champion in 1920 and sat in the winning four-man bobsled in 1932, but no woman has made the Olympic summer and winter gold-medal double. Competing as a rookie on the World Cup bobsled circuit, Engquist showed great promise last season. After failing to finish in top 15 in her first five races with teammate Karin Olsson, they got a fourth as best result on Utah's Olympic Park track, where the bobsled races will be held in the Winter Games in three months. Sweden's Patrik Sjoberg, one of the greatest high-jumpers in history, echoed the national disappointment. "I showed that you can become world champion and break the world record without using drugs," he said.
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