Cross-Country Skiing

MOSCOW - Cross-country skiing coaches from seven nations - including Canada - quietly met in Norway on Friday to discuss how to catch Russian skiers who may be blood doping, and within 24 hours the head of the sport's governing body stated Russia's skiing federation could face sanctions if there are more drug cases.

Justin Wadsworth, the World Cup coach for the U.S. team and the husband of Canadian gold medallist Beckie Scott, said the patience of nations that rigorously test their athletes is exhausted, in light of this spring's revelations of Russian positive tests.

Wadsworth organized the meeting on Friday at Beitostoelen, Norway, as the World Cup circuit began. He said about 20 coaches from Germany, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Japan.

"Our coaches have been communicating with the head Norwegian coaches, the Swiss coaches and we're trying to rally other countries to have stronger sanctions against the Russians,'' said the American coach in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press.

The former racer said during the meeting the coaches agreed to approach their respective federations, and urge them to pressure the International Ski Federation for more aggressive actions prior to the Vancouver games.

"A decision was made for each country that was there to push each of their governing bodies to go the International Ski Federation...and say that as soon as possible, something must be done,'' he said.

Each nation also committed to approach Norwegian Vegard Ulvang, chair of the cross-country committee of the international federation, to express their concerns.

Four Russian cross-country skiers were banned for two years last season after testing positive for EPO. Three Russian biathletes were also given bans this year for having used the same endurance-booster.

The positive tests in a January competition included Russian champions like Julia Tchepalova, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, and Yevgeny Dementiev, a Turin gold medallist in the pursuit event.

Vidar Lofshus, a Norwegian assistant coach who attended the coach's meeting, said the results have caused him to question if the International Ski Federation has moved quickly enough to control blood boosting.

"I just wish the process of the International Ski Federation was a bit faster,'' he said.

On Saturday, Gian-Franco Kasper, the head of skiing's governing body, said the Russian ski federation and Olympic committee could face sanctions if there are more doping cases in the country.

The Associated Press reported that Kasper said that "we are not happy with what is going in the Russian (ski) federation.''

Kasper said that "if things do not change we will have to take action against the Russian NOC or whoever is responsible.''

Kasper was in Moscow for a promotional parallel slalom event on a huge ramp.

The Russian national cross-country teams have had eight athletes suspended for use of banned substances since 2001, according to a list confirmed by the International Ski Federation. That doesn't include Tchepalova and Dementiev, who have announced they are retiring from skiing since their first positive tests in January.

In an interview in Canada before departing for Europe, David Wood, the head coach of the Canadian team, was blunt in his views.

"The Russians should be disqualified from the Olympics. It's an annual event in the spring that there is a list of Russians disqualified,'' he said in an interview at the Canmore training centre in Alberta in October.

"It's discouraging because our people are being tested two or three times a month and you go outside of the country and people are doing nothing.''

The potential impact of a substance such as erythropoietin, known as EPO, can have a huge impact on results, says Dr. Jim Stray-Gunnersen, a physician who helped develop blood doping testing programs in the 1990s.

Stray-Gunnersen has published several scientific papers on EPO and said, "effective blood doping can take somebody in 30th place to the podium.''

He argues that only frequent, random collection of urine and blood samples from Christmas until the games would allow you to ``get a handle on things.''

The doctor said EPO as a drug rapidly clears from the body and its hard to detect if athletes take it during training, and he advocates for regular blood testing to see if red blood cell levels reaches abnormally high levels, a system sometimes called "a blood passport.''

However, the Russians caution against point fingers without solid proof.

Georgy Mnatsakanov, general secretary of the Russian Ski Federation, said in an interview Friday that the doping is isolated to a few athletes rather than a teamwide issue.

"It's absolutely right that we have now a problem, but these problems aren't connected with the policy of our federation, because we are absolutely against use of these substances,'' he said in an interview from Moscow.

"The problem is that some athletes are trying to get drugs from different persons. And sometimes they try to keep it a secret from the team doctor.''

He said Russia is a large country, and "to control everybody it's absolutely not possible,'' and he also argues that it's irrelevant if some nations' coaches have lost trust in the Russian team.

"They are participating in a competition, they are being tested and if it's OK then it's OK, we don't need external trust or distrust,'' he said.

David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said in an interview that his agency is trying to help Russia improve its monitoring of skiers, and has assisted in negotiations so that Norwegian-funded anti-doping experts can travel to Russian and help its anti-doping agency test athletes.

"That's a positive thing. There was a contract signed three weeks ago in that respect,'' said Howman. "They can learn how to run an effective program.''

Meanwhile, Sarah Lewis, the secretary general of the International Ski Federation, said in an interview she can't discuss what plans the federation may have to combat doping during the World Cup season.

"Of course we're not going to reveal the organization of testing building up to the games,'' she said. "It's something you'll understand has to be treated with discretion.''