Belarussian Skater Summoned by IOC

A short-track speedskater from Belarus who abruptly left the Winter Olympics after steroids were found in her system was called before an IOC inquiry Friday.

Yulia Pavlovich, who checked out of the Olympic Village on Monday rather than submit to another test for nandrolone, was to be questioned by a panel of the IOC’s executive board, an Olympic source familiar with the situation told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee awaited word on urine samples taken from a Russian cross-country skiing star who was disqualified from a race Thursday because of high hemoglobin levels.

There was no word on when the test results from Larissa Lazutina would be received. Generally, testing is completed within 24-36 hours and the IOC then has an additional 36 hours to finish the process before declaring a positive test.

Pavlovich vanished from village housing after failing to show up for a second test, which was ordered by the IOC after a broken seal on the sample bag invalidated the original exam. The IOC barred her from further competition at Salt Lake City pending an investigation and punished the Belarus Olympic committee for allegedly helping the athlete avoid another exam.

The first test found levels of nandrolone 380 times the legal limit, the IOC said. But the Salt Lake City Games remain free of a doping case because the broken seal, an apparent accident by a lab courier, meant the sample might be contaminated and thus could not be used.

Belarussian Sports and Tourism Minister Yevgeny Vorsin said Tuesday that Pavlovich had been sent away from the village by team leadership “at her coach’s suggestion,” and that the test results may have been produced by “medical help” received from team personnel last weekend.

Pavlovich finished 19th in the 1,500 meters and 23rd in the 500 meters, which preceded her drug test last Saturday night. She had been scheduled to compete in the 1,000 on Wednesday.

The IOC executive board suspended the Belarussian committee for the rest of this year from grants and other support generally worth about $120,000 annually. It also kicked Belarussian team leader Yaroslav Barichko out of the Games.

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Salt Lake’s Olympic bid chief, who lavished $1 million in cash and favors on International Olympic Committee delegates and family members, says it wasn’t bribery.

“It wasn’t a quid pro quo. It wasn’t, ‘I’ll give you this, you give me that,’” Tom Welch told “60 Minutes” for a broadcast planned Sunday, the final day of the city’s Winter Olympics.

In a transcript of the interview, Welch said he had no choice but to lavish gifts and favors on International Olympic Committee members, just as other bid cities were doing.

He called it “a process of excess from beginning to end.”

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department appealed a decision that threw out 15 felony charges of bribery racketeering, fraud and conspiracy against Welch and his deputy, Dave Johnson.

“A bribe is when I offer to give you something and in return you give me something,” Welch told “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace. “These guys were never asked for their votes. Their votes were never promised.”

IOC members vote by secret ballot to designate Olympic cities, and Welch has said he never really knew who gave their vote for Salt Lake City.