Skiers' B samples test positive

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The B drug test samples from Russian cross-country skiers Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova taken during the Salt Lake City Olympics both came back positive, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said Friday.

"I didn't receive official written confirmation but I did get it verbally from the laboratory," FIS president Gian Franco Kasper told The Associated Press. "There is no doubt. The B samples are positive. It's exactly what we expected. When the A samples are positive, there is a one-in-a-million chance that the B will be negative."

Lazutina and Danilova both tested positive at the Salt Lake City Olympics for darbepoetin, which boosts production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

Kasper said the two skiers were suspended from competing until sanctioned by FIS. He said they would like receive the normal two-year ban for doping offenses.

Lazutina, 36, was forced to give up her victory in the 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 eight-place finish for the same reason, though she will keep gold and silver medals she won earlier.

Spain's Johann Muehlegg was also stripped of his gold in the 50-kilometer race for testing positive for darbepoetin, sold commercially as Nesp.

Kasper linked the positive tests to the banning of six leading Finnish cross-country skiers, including multiple world and Olympic medalists, who tested positive for a banned substance last year. It was the sport's biggest doping scandal.

"We knew already last year it was the tip of the iceberg with the Finnish case," Kasper said. "We should be happy they are positive cases. We are on the right way to clean up the sport."

Darbepoetin, a relatively new drug, is not the IOC's banned substances list, but was similar enough to EPO for FIS to act, Kasper said.

"For us, it is clear, it was man-made EPO," he said. "It's a performance enhancer. We now have to take sanctions."

"Cross-country skiing was hard hit, but we prefer to have things in the open rather than hidden if we want to clean up doping. We needed to hunt for doping cases and this is what he have now done. Now we take the consequences."

 

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