Two Stripped of Gold Medals

In a surreal combination of circumstances Sunday, Russian Larissa Lazutina accepted congratulations for winning the gold medal in the women’s 30k cross-country ski race at Soldier Hollow, while 60 miles away the International Olympic Committee was voting to strip her of the medal for a blood doping violation.

Lazutina, 36, whose victory would have given her 10 medals in the Winter Games, became the central focus of a breathtaking scandal infecting the sport and staining the final day of the 19th Winter Olympics. Lazutina’s expulsion from the Games was announced only a few hours after she claimed Sunday’s triumph was revenge for being forced out of the women’s relay on Thursday.

The IOC also stripped Spanish skier Johann Muehlegg of his gold medal in the men’s 50k--one of three golds he won--and expelled him, and also expelled Lazutina’s Russian teammate Olga Danilova from the Games, without taking away her medals, all for testing positive for a new drug that is similar to previously known blood doping substances used to enhance performance.

“We have to conduct this fight,” said Arne Ljungqvist, acting chairman of the IOC medical commission. “They should know we are on their heels. This is a very important message to those who claim we are always far behind.”

The harsh afternoon revelations in Salt Lake City were set against a morning backdrop of cheer at the final individual event of the Games. Thousands of fans rang cowbells and waved flags at Soldier Hollow as Lazutina crushed the field and Nina Kemppel of Anchorage, Alaska, the best female American cross-country skier ever, completed her Olympic career with the finest U.S. result ever.

After Lazutina, who defiantly called the almost sure-thing-gold Russian relay team ejection from Thursday’s race “a tragedy,” was removed, Italian Gabriella Paruzzi was awarded the gold medal, her countrywoman Stefania Belmondo was elevated to silver, and Norwegian Bente Skari was raised from fourth place to bronze. Danilova raced and finished eighth, but was removed from the final standings.

Muehlegg, 31, is German, but competes with a Spanish passport. He moved to Madrid when he couldn’t break into the top echelon of German skiers. At the Games he won the men’s 30k and 10k, and passed drug tests. However, Muehlegg was given an out-of-competition drug test Thursday. He won the 50k on Saturday before the positive result came back.

Lazutina and Danilova were tested Thursday, but results did not come back and hearings on the cases were not completed before Sunday’s race.

During the Games, the medical staff conducted more than 1,200 blood tests, according to Patrick Schamasch of the IOC’s medical commission. Athletes with elevated rates of hemoglobin, exceeding 17.5 units for men and 16.0 for women, were subsequently given urine tests.

In these three cases, according to an IOC report, the athletes tested positive for darbepoetin, a substance that is so new that it is not on the IOC’s banned list. But it is regarded as the equivalent of EPO, or erythropoetin, which stimulates the production of red blood cells “and can therefore enhance performance in endurance sports.” Athletes are given a blanket warning not to ingest any performance-enhancing agent.

Ljungqvist, who is from Sweden, defended the organization’s severe sanctions even though the drug is not on the banned list. Ljungqvist said the product has only been on the market a few months--created to treat anemia--but said IOC policy allows for penalizing athletes who use drugs similar to banned substances.

“This enables us to keep up with new production of drugs around the world,” Ljungqvist said. “This is a very strong message the IOC is sending. We are very saddened, but we had to act.”

Muehlegg attended his own hearing, and according to the IOC report, pointed out he had passed other drug tests. He suggested failing this one might be related to a change in diet.

At another hearing, Russian delegation officials representing the skiers challenged the validity of the testing. IOC Director-General Francois Carrard said they have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

It was a world of contrasts for Olympic cross-country skiers Sunday. At Soldier Hollow, in Midway, snow fell in thick flakes and obscured the Wasatch Mountains as skiers battled the hilly and high terrain at 5,600 feet. Fans in the stands and sprinkled around the course roared. Polka music played over a loudspeaker and horse-drawn sleigh rides were taken.

Lazutina’s time of 1 hour, 29.09 seconds, was 1:48 faster than Paruzzi. Kemppel, 15th after the disqualification of the Russians, bested Martha Rockwell’s 16th in 1972 and finished in 1:37:08. Wendy Wagner, also of Anchorage, Alaska, was 23rd. Barb Jones of Bozeman, Mont. was 35th.

“That was the hardest race of my life,” Kemppel said. “I didn’t have much more left.”

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CROSS-COUNTRY

WOMEN’S 30-KILOMETER CLASSICAL

At Soldier Hollow

Sunday’s Results

1, Larissa Lazutina, Russia, 1:29:09.0.

2, Gabriella Paruzzi, Italy, 1:30:57.1.

3, Stefania Belmondo, Italy, 1:31:01.6.

4, Bente Skari, Norway, 1:31:36.3; 5, Anita Moen, Norway, 1:31:37.3; 6, Valentina Shevchenko, Ukraine, 1:33:03.1; 7, Viola Bauer, Germany, 1:33:25.1; 8, Olga Danilova, Russia, 1:33:44.1; 9, Kristina Smigun, Estonia, 1:33:52.7; 10, Vibeke W Skofterud, Norway, 1:35:02.3; 11, Julija Tchepalova, Russia, 1:35:37.4; 12, Natascia Leonardi Cortesi, Switzerland, 1:35:46.8; 13, Swetlana Nagejkina, Belarus, 1:35:51.6; 14, Petra Majdic, Slovenia, 1:35:51.8; 15, Katrin Smigun, Estonia, 1:36:04.0. U.S. Finishers: 17, Nina Kemppel, Anchorage, 1:37:08.7; 25, Wendy Wagner, Park City, Utah, 1:39:54.8; 37, Barb Jones, Bozeman, Mont., 1:45:18.7; NR, Aelin Peterson, Fairbanks, Alaska, DNS.