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Two U.S. Nordic Skiers Banned
Americans Kikkan Randall, above, and Leif Zimmermann are among 12 suspended for 5 days, after testing positive for high levels of hemoglobin.
(By Matthew Stockman -- Getty Images)
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Saturday, February 11, 2006
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 10 -- Two Americans were among 12 athletes entered in Nordic skiing events banned from competing for five days after testing positive for high levels of hemoglobin in their blood.
Olympic officials emphasized that the athletes had flunked health tests, not doping tests, and would be eligible to compete in the Games after the five-day period.
Though high hemoglobin can be an indicator of blood doping -- which is banned because it aids performance by enhancing endurance -- it also can result from training at altitude, illness, dehydration or other causes.
Competing with high levels of hemoglobin can be dangerous.
"We want to emphasize very clearly this is not a doping test," International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said. These "are not positive tests for doping."
Among the suspended athletes were U.S. cross-country skiers Kikkan Randall, 23, of Anchorage, and Leif Zimmermann, 22, of Bozeman, Mont. The others were Canadian Sean Crooks; Belarussans Sergey Dolidovich and Alexander Lasutkin; France's Jean Marc Gaillard; Russians Natalia Matveeva, Pavel Korosteljev and Nikolai Pankratov; German Evi Sachenbacher; Croatian Alen Abramovic; and Robel Teklemariam of Ethiopia.
The tests were administered by the international ski federation (FIS) rather than the IOC, which in separate testing looks for a number of endurance-aiding drugs including erythropoietin (EPO) during the Olympics. No athletes have yet been accused of doping violations here.
FIS said in a statement from the cross-country venue in Pragelato that it performed blood tests on 224 Olympians over two days. Should the suspended athletes pass blood tests at the conclusion of their suspensions, they would be eligible to compete.
IOC Defeats for U.S.
In another blow to the United States' standing in international sports politics, neither of the two Americans seeking seats on the IOC's executive committee was elected Friday, leaving the United States without a representative on the board for the first time in 14 years other than a seven-month stretch between July 2001 and February 2002.
Jim Easton, whose four-year term as vice president expired, was not reelected and Anita DeFrantz did not win back a post she has held in the past. They remain members of the 100-plus member IOC along with fellow American Bob Ctvrtlik.
Italian member Mario Pescante and South African Sam Ramsamy were elected to the 10-member executive committee.
The U.S. Olympic Committee also was disappointed Thursday with the IOC's decision to keep baseball and softball out of the Summer Games, affirming a membership vote last summer.
