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Post World Championship - Doping Scandal Escalates!
Thursday March 1st

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With every day the doping scandal from the 2001 World Championships in Lahti Finland is growing and growing. For those in Australia who may have missed what has been happening, here is a summary to date:

February 15 - Jari Isometsae places 4th in 15km classic race, submits a doping test as required after the race.
February 17 - Mika Myllylae wins classic leg of the one day pursuit, but withdraws from the skate due to "fever". Jari Isometsae claims the silver medal in the pursuit. Janne Immonen breaks a pole in the skate and fails to finish the race. Rumours come out that evening that Isometsae returned a positive A test from the 15km.
February 18 - Virpi Kuitunen skis the race of her life to win the women's one-day pursuit. That afternoon in a press conference Isometsae confesses to taking Hemohes, a plasma expander, in order to lower his "naturally high" haemoglobin level to below the FIS limit. Team management and doctors deny any knowledge or involvement. Knowledge of the positive A test was known by the team management before the skating leg of the pursuit.
February 19 - Mika Myllylae withdraws from 30km because he is not feeling well.
February 22 - Finland with Janne Immonen, Harri Kirvesniemi, Sami Repo, and Mika Myllylae, win the men's four by 10km relay. Myllylae claims this has been his dream, to win a World Championship gold medal on home soil. WADA, the world antidoping agency conducts a surprise test on the entire Finnish team. Finnish team management welcome the tests to "clear the names" of the rest of the team.
February 25 - Mika Myllylae withdraws from the 50km just before the start. Rumours spread during the race that Immonen tested postive from the relay, and that the Finnish doctors and head coach will be fired. Knowledge is revealed about a medical bag belonging to head coach Kari-Pekka Kyro, that was left at a petrol station in Helsinki on February 10 after the World Cup in Estonia that same day. The bag is said to have contained bloody syringes and empty IV bags.
February 26 - Immonen has indeed tested postive and Finland has to return the relay gold medals. Sponsors begin to desert the Finnish team. There are reports in papers that DNA tests will be used to determine who used the syringes from the medical bag.
February 28 - Now all hell is starting to break loose. There are reports that four more Finns tested positive from the WADA tests. The names being tossed around are Myllylae, Kuitunen, Milla Jauho, and Kirvesniemi. That afternoon incredible news comes from a press conference. Kari-Pekka Kyro admits: Yes we were doping. Yes, we used the drugs to improve our performances. Yes, everyone knew about it. And No, we didn't think we would get caught.

Now many of the facts, but perhaps not all, are on the table. The story is that the Finnish team started using Hemohes after Ramsau in 1999, where apparently the drug was found in the tests from many of the medalists. That is another complete story in itself. The drug wasn't on the banned list then, but was introduced for this season. The Finnish team claim that at first they decided to stop using the drug, but after receiving assurance from national and international sources that it couldn't be detected after a short time, reintroduced usage before the Otepaa World Cup in Estonia. They used it again before the World Championships. After Isometsae was caught, they stopped using Hemohes, however still believed others wouldn't be caught. As the pursuit was on the same day they found out, Myllylae pulled out and Immonen deliberately broke his pole. The rest is now history.

What has been the hardest for many to believe is that Harri Kirvesniemi was involved. The 42 year old veteran was widely respected across the skiing world. As a journalist in the Swedish paper Expressen" says, imagine if Gunde Svan had been caught for doping. Then maybe you can understand what is happening in Finland now. Cross country skiing is their national sport. For Australians, imagine if Kieran Perkins, Susie O'Neill and Ian Thorpe tested positive and confessed to using human growth hormone at the Sydney Olympics. Myllylae, a national icon since his success in 1999, has left the country with his family to an unknown destination. Kirvesniemi has just about broken down in interviews, and begs his country and the skiing world for forgiveness. Others athletes involved have gone to ground and decline to comment.

This issue is far from over. While more facts are coming to light and rumours continue to grow, the biggest questions remaining is whether the Finns were using EPO to increase their red blood count before lowering it with Hemohes, and if so will anyone admit to it? To date all involved are claiming they used Hemohes alone. And what other countries were using the same substance or other substances and didn't get caught. There are reports already of other IV bags and syringes being found in the athlete's village in Lahti. To assume that catching the Finns will stop the doping abuse is as naive as thinking that the Haemoglobin limit will do the same job. (Though ironically the Hemoglobin test did lead to the use of the plasma expander lead to the Finnish team's downfall) FIS now has to take this issue seriously.

A tragedy for the sport. But a necessary one.

Carve the Elements

XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission, and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.