Nordic’s Bad Blood

Suppose that shortly after the Super Bowl, it was discovered that key members of the New England Patriots had been using performance-enhancing drugs when they beat the St. Louis Rams for the NFL title.

What might have been the reaction?

Disbelief? Embarrassment? Anger? Disgust? Betrayal? Knowing winks? That’s how the folks in Finland felt last year when it was revealed that the national cross-country ski team was involved in a form of blood doping, even as the Finnish skiers were hosting the World Championships at Lahti.

Except, there wasn’t much guffawing. Stupidity sometimes may be laughable even in Finland, but not when it comes to something as important as Nordic skiing--cross-country and ski jumping--the country’s national sport, a sport now trying to rise from the ashes in Finland. Four medals were forfeited after the World Championships. Three of the country’s top coaches were fired--and banned for life.

Six cross-country skiers--four men, two women, among them some of the biggest names in the sport--are, theoretically, serving two-year suspensions. But, more likely, their careers are over.

The national ski federation has undergone massive personnel changes and sponsorships have dried up.

“We are weak,” said Veikko Lautsi, sports editor of Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper. “Our men’s team is very weak. We have won at least one Olympic medal in cross-country since 1928. This time, there probably won’t be any. Maybe in the women’s relay [on Feb. 21].”

Blood doping, in various forms, has been going on in endurance sports for a decade or more.

The idea is to raise the level of hemoglobin and expand the volume of blood, resulting in greater stamina.

Most recently, a hormone called erythropoetin (EPO) has been used as a hemoglobin booster. It has been on the list of drugs not allowed in international competition for several years but there is no way to test for it.

So, to get around that, the International Ski Federation began testing for hemoglobin counts.

Violators learned, however, that by combining EPO and another plasma expander, hemohes, commonly called HES, enhanced performance could be achieved and the hemoglobin level held within the allowed range. It was widely believed, however, that there was no way to test for HES, which must be given intravenously over a period of time before competition.

The newly formed World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had come up with a reliable test for HES, however. When testing began at the World Championships, the Finns were surprised.

First, silver medalist Jari Isometsa tested positive. He admitted having used HES but said at a news conference that because he had a naturally high hemoglobin level, he had done so to reduce his count, and that he had acted independently of his teammates and coaches.

Coach Kari-Pekka Kyro and team doctors denied involvement.

Had it ended there, the flap might have died down.

Then, three days after Isometsa’s press conference, the manager of a gas station near Helsinki’s airport turned over to police a bag belonging to the Finnish Ski Assn.

He had found it at his station earlier that month, after a World Cup competition in Estonia.

Inside were hypodermic needles, used infusion bags for HES, and prescriptions for HES signed by one of the team doctors.

Three members of the Finnish relay team--Janni Immonen, Harri Kirvesniemi, a six-time Olympian and the country’s most respected skier, and Mika Myllyla, who’d won a gold and two bronze medals in 1998 at Nagano and four world championships, all tested positive. So did Milla Jauho and Virpi Kuitunen of the women’s team.

At another press conference, Coach Kyro admitted to the blood doping, saying the entire team was aware of it but nobody thought they’d get caught.

Later, Kirvesniemi tearfully announced his retirement.

As the country churned, Myllyla summed up the nation’s angst in a confession written for his fans:

“My heart is broken and there is no way to describe the amount of my agony with words. I kneel down, admit my defeat and beg for peace in my soul.”

Peace, though, was about the last thing anyone was feeling.

“There was shock, first,” said Lautsi, the Finnish journalist. “Cross-country has always been our beloved sport. Then some were angry and some tried to understand. There was a lot of ‘Everybody is using drugs in sports, not just the Finns.’ It’s always easier to blame others.”

Lautsi’s paper played the story big, and said in an editorial, “We have become accustomed to laugh behind our hands at Chinese swimmers and Bulgarian weightlifters. Finland’s skiers now find themselves in the same caste, and not without foundation.”

That was not an entirely popular stand. “Some [subscribers] got angry and said we were writing too much about this, that we should let the skiers alone,” Lautsi said.

And the fallout?

“Everything is quite the same as how it was,” he said. “There’s maybe some more testing but the system has not changed. There have been many changes in the [national] ski federation but the system is like before.”

And Finland’s love for cross-country skiing apparently has lost none of its ardor.

“[People] care quite a lot, still,” Lautsi said. “These Games, with everything happening in the evening, Finnish time, people will be able to watch. There will be a lot of interest.”