Cross-Country Skiing

CANMORE, Alta. - If you take blood-boosting drugs, you should spend at least five years out of international cross country skiing competition, says the director of racing for the International Ski Federation.

Jurge Capol, who for seven years has overseen the World Cup and World Championship races in the sport, said in an interview Friday night that the existing sanction of two years should be more than doubled.

"I would say myself, give them five years at least. It should be harder punishment...That's my personal opinion,'' he told reporters after the first day of World Cup races in Canmore.

If such a measure were in place, it would keep those who test positive from competing in at least one Olympic Games.

It's possible some of the world's top skiers might not currently be racing in the World Cup in Alberta, which concluded Saturday with classical sprint races.

Russian Irina Khazova - who came third in Friday's World Cup women's 10 kilometre race - was suspended in 2007 for two years for the use of illegal drugs. She then resumed her career for the 2009-10 Olympic season after serving out her penalty.

Justyna Kowalczyk, the current World Cup leader, was handed a two-year doping ban by FIS in 2005 for using the banned steroid dexamethason, but the suspension was first shortened to one year and then lifted all together, allowing her to compete in Turin in 2006.

Capol's comments weren't directed at any particular skier, and he emphasized it was his personal view - rather than an official position of the federation.

He noted that ultimately it will be up to the members of the International Ski Federation council to bring in changes to the existing sanctions.

Russia has been a particular concern for the sport's top officials.

Positive tests in a January 2009 competition included Russian champions Julia Tchepalova, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, and Yevgeny Dementiev, a Turin gold medallist in the pursuit event.

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.

Capol, a former Swiss skier who raced internationally from 1984 to 1994, said he sees some improvement in testing in Russia since taking on his job.

Cross-country skier Alena Sidko, 30, was recently kicked off Russia's Vancouver Olympics team, though there was no official confirmation from the Russia Ski Federation on the reason.

Capol said he regards this as a positive development

"Their own testing system five or six years ago was not so reliable, but most of the cases that were found in cross country in Russia the last three or four years were done by their own tests,'' he said.

"This is a positive sign for me that they do their own tests and they try to find the black sheep.

"It was their motivation, it was their money to find black sheeps.''

While Capol notes there are increasing numbers of out-of-competition tests by the International Ski Federation, he doesn't believe the Games are completely cleansed of the drug problem.

"If I said all sports and cross country skiing is 100 per cent clean I would be naive as well. I'm not that naive. I believe there is still black sheep around,'' he said.

Justin Wadsworth, the U.S. World Cup coach, said five-year sanctions for a first offence would be a major step forward for the sport.

"A five-year ban would mean athletes miss an Olympics, and that's a motivation money-wise for a lot of athletes,'' he said.

However, he said that while senior officials like Capol may believe in the tougher sanction, it requires political will from national federations who sit on the International Ski Federation council.

"Saying it is one thing, doing it is another.''

The existing anti-doping rule No. 10.2 of the International Ski Federation state that a first-time offence will result in two years of ineligibility if prohibited substances are detected in athlete's blood.

Dr. Rasmus Damsgaard, an independent consultant who designs the ski federation's anti-doping efforts, said he's hopeful new methods of monitoring athlete's blood will also assist.

In an interview from Copenhagen, Damsgaard says that he hopes the new blood passport system will make a difference after the Olympics.

That system, recently approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency, allows a federation to base a ban on measurements of high levels of hemoglobin _ which carries oxygen in red blood cells _ and other indicators in the cells that show unusually high levels of red blood cell production.

The system looks at the pattern of changes in red blood cells over a period of time, and uses a statistical model to determine whether drug use was almost certain.

"I'm confident it takes away a couple of per cent of the hard core cheaters. With blood profiling...we will have more positives,'' predicted Damsgaard.