Doping in XC skiing

[python]

snip

Training most of the year in Switzerland gives Legkov very good access to cycling doctors like Testa and Reto can make a very good connection between them. I would really like to be wrong, but guilty until proven.

that is true but the other side of the coin is also true - much harder to hide blood doping...the easily accessible western/central european location year-round exposes him to a risk of heightened ooc testing compared to the traditional remote places his countrymen may hang out (like the security-obsessed sochi where even an overflying bird must have an official pass or the godforsaken khanty-mansiysk located some 3000km from zurich...i have some information that fis visited him on average once a week when he just started with reto. no idea, how much they control him now, but doubt it's much more relaxed given the politics of the sochi games and the general anti-russian guardedness/sentiment at fis

still, i am willing to bet on reto's reputation any time over the guys like their sprint coach...

an interesting component of the legkov puzzle may not even be reto but the low-key, east german lady by the name isabelle knaute - a physiotherapist, a gofer, a logistics manager, a translator - a perfect soigner in one word.

all that said, legkov appears a real talent. i heard his vo2 max is near 90 and that he ran the famous test 10k course in oberhoff a minute faster that cologna's best (31;41 vs. 32;40)

source: skirun blog

 

[Discgear]

Anomalies presented by the Norwegian Ski Federation

Now when the figures presented in the Norwegian Ski Federation’s Press Conference has sunk in, it could be time to address some anomalies that are now quite clear. All the references from the Press-Conference that I refer to, are from dukoffs excellent summary, presented earlier in the thread.

First, the measurements the Norwegian Ski Federation presented at the press conference was from off-season (Jul-Nov) and the measurements were taken both at low altitude and at altitude.

Trainer Dag Kaas in Olympiatoppen, who has coached 12 individual world champions in four different endurance sports (long-distance track running, speed skating, biathlon and x-country skiing) said the following words about the Norwegian Cross- Country National Team in the debate after Uppdrag Granskning:

- We have committed systematic High Altitude Training
- We have done it for a long time and in a systematic way
- Normally the values are 13 for the women and 15 for the man and we get a rise between 1-2 in High Altitude Training.
When Saltin protested and said that the Norwegians always forget to tell that you could get a rise in High Altitude, but as soon as you go down to lower altitudes the values will adjust within 48 hours, Kaas answered.
- We have other experiences, this is individual.

So what do the measurements tell, that was presented in the press-conference? Quite a different story:

Shows data before and after 17 days living at 2000m altitude, training up to 3200m. Shows average increase of 0.7 points. Some 0.3, some 1.2 .

No signs of a rise up to 2, despite the high measurements are taken in a training camp on a really high altitude

Another common argument put forward by Kaas, Røste, Daæhlie and Ulseth, was that the high numbers taken in connection with races would be explained by two things:

1. The insecurities with the Hemocue-equipment, and that it showed constantly high numbers.
2. Dehydration during the races.

Firstly, we don’t really know the high numbers in connection with the races since they were not presented at the press-conference.

Secondly,
The first argument was smashed by Saltin and Mørkeberg in their chronicle in VG.
The second argument, was smashed by the Ski Federation itself:

From a project in 1998(?) measurements were taken at men's 50k and women's 30k. 16.4 avg before start, 16.0 after race. Measurements taken just before start, after warm-up. Makes them higher than in morning.

So by those numbers presented by dr. Ola Rønsen we know that the numbers were lower after competition, not higher.

But look on those last numbers again, they are quite sensational. This is numbers presented by the Norwegian Team doctor at the press-conference, and since bashing hemocue, we have to expect that these measurements in the referred 1998 project, was done with laboratory equipment - by Norweigans, on Norwegian skiers at two long-distance races.
The mean value for men and women are 16.4! Sensationally high and inexplicable when you compare with the numbers that could be reached living at 2000 m and training up to 3200 m.

Indeed a smoking gun.

 

[Alesle]

I just want to comment on a couple of inaccuracies in your post.

First, the measurements the Norwegian Ski Federation presented at the press conference was from off-season (Jul-Nov) and the measurements were taken both at low altitude and at altitude.

This is a small nit-pick, but most of the tests were from off-season (Jul-Nov), not all. They included the in-season tests [with laboratory equipment] that they were in posession of, but that was not nearly as many tests as they had from the off-season.

Trainer Dag Kaas in Olympiatoppen, who has coached 12 individual world champions in four different endurance sports (long-distance track running, speed skating, biathlon and x-country skiing) said the following words about the Norwegian Cross- Country National Team in the debate after Uppdrag Granskning:

- We have committed systematic High Altitude Training
- We have done it for a long time and in a systematic way
- Normally the values are 13 for the women and 15 for the man and we get a rise between 1-2 in High Altitude Training.
When Saltin protested and said that the Norwegians always forget to tell that you could get a rise in High Altitude, but as soon as you go down to lower altitudes the values will adjust within 48 hours, Kaas answered.
- We have other experiences, this is individual.

So what do the measurements tell, that was presented in the press-conference? Quite a different story:

Shows data before and after 17 days living at 2000m altitude, training up to 3200m. Shows average increase of 0.7 points. Some 0.3, some 1.2

No signs of a rise up to 2, despite the high measurements are taken in a training camp on a really high altitude.

The average increase of 0.7 [and maximum of 1.2] was taken a couple of days after the altitude camp, when the athletes had returned to sea level altitude and regained their normal fluid balance [in other words, after the 48h adjustment Saltin has brought up a couple of times].

It's also not inconcieveable that an altitude camp lasting more than 17 days could yield a maximum gain above 1.2 for select athletes, or that a 1.2 gain at sea level could approach a 2.0 gain if the post camp measurement was taken at high altitude. Though that is just speculation on my part, and I agree that a "raise between 1-2" seems like a very extreme statement that I question the validity of.

I'd also like to point out that for the hemocue tests taken at the high altitude camp, the values seemed to average over a full point more than at the departure for the camp, and almost 0.5 more than what was measured after the return from the camp [the most extreme example being a measurement 3.1 higher than at departure].

Another common argument put forward by Kaas, Røste, Daæhlie and Ulseth, was that the high numbers taken in connection with races would be explained by two things:

1. The insecurities with the Hemocue-equipment, and that it showed constantly high numbers.
2. Dehydration during the races.

Firstly, we don’t really know the high numbers in connection with the races since they were not presented at the press-conference.

Secondly,
The first argument was smashed by Saltin and Mørkeberg in their chronicle in VG.
The second argument, was smashed by the Ski Federation itself:

From a project in 1998(?) measurements were taken at men's 50k and women's 30k. 16.4 avg before start, 16.0 after race. Measurements taken just before start, after warm-up. Makes them higher than in morning.

So by those numbers presented by dr. Ola Rønsen we know that the numbers were lower after competition, not higher.

But look on those last numbers again, they are quite sensational. This is numbers presented by the Norwegian Team doctor at the press-conference, and since bashing hemocue, we have to expect that these measurements in the referred 1998 project, was done with laboratory equipment - by Norweigans, on Norwegian skiers at two long-distance races.
The mean value for men and women are 16.4! Sensationally high and inexplicable when you compare with the numbers that could be reached living at 2000 m and training up to 3200 m.

Indeed a smoking gun.

The 1998 test was indeed with laboratory equipment, but it was unusually taken after warm-up and right before the skiers started (the main point of the test as to measure blood sugar levels, fats and other stuff). The mean value for the men pre-race was 16.4, no mean value for the women was mentioned explicitly.

It's also worth noting that earlier in the press conference studies including Hb [measurement] levels before and after workouts where shown, where Hb levels were measured in the morning and then after a workout. It generally showed an increase in measured Hb levels of about 13% for the post work-out measurement (at least in the presented example).

As for the accuracy of the hemocue tests; I don't think anyone can question that they have a large variance [compared to "laboratory" tests], and consequantly any single measurement has a lot of uncertainty associated with it (however, it's still useful for average values of a large sample size).

 

[Discgear]

I just want to comment on a couple of inaccuracies in your post.

The average increase of 0.7 [and maximum of 1.2] was taken a couple of days after the altitude camp, when the athletes had returned to sea level altitude and regained their normal fluid balance [in other words, after the 48h adjustment Saltin has brought up a couple of times].

I agree that it's a big difference if the measurements were taken a couple of days after the camp. Where do you find information that supports this statement of yours?

It's also not inconcieveable that an altitude camp lasting more than 17 days could yield a maximum gain above 1.2 for select athletes, or that a 1.2 gain at sea level could approach a 2.0 gain if the post camp measurement was taken at high altitude. Though that is just speculation on my part, and I agree that a "raise between 1-2" seems like a very extreme statement that I question the validity of.

Well, not only was a rise between 1-2 due to High Altitude claimed by both Dag Kaas and Røste, it was also supported by team doctor in speed skating Thor-Øistein Endsjø who said they could hardly get a rise more than 0,5 in high altitude training, and that they were confused by the high numbers reached by Cross-Country section. When asking how they did achive this, they didn't get any answers. http://sport.aftenposten.no/sport/skivm_2013/article270176.ece

The 1998 test was indeed with laboratory equipment, but it was unusually taken after warm-up and right before the skiers started (the main point of the test as to measure blood sugar levels, fats and other stuff). The mean value for the men pre-race was 16.4, no mean value for the women was mentioned explicitly.

Exactly, they said that 1998 test was taken before and after the 50 km race for men and 30 km race for women, and the mean value before was 16,4. Why should I assume that the mean value was only concerning the male skiers? Even so, it's a pretty high mean value.

As for the accuracy of the hemocue tests; I don't think anyone can question that they have a large variance [compared to "laboratory" tests], and consequantly any single measurement has a lot of uncertainty associated with it (however, it's still useful for average values of a large sample size).

I'm not an expert, but both Saltin and Mørkeberg claims otherwise when the measurments are performed by professionals. And the claim that Hemocue should constantly show to high numbers is very doubtful. I'm not at all questioning that the HemoCue tests taken in Connection with races during the 90s showed significantly higher numbers than labory tests done mainly off season. But that is the whole point with this discussion - that HB-levels were higher in races due to blood manipulation.

 

[Alesle]

I agree that it's a big difference if the measurements were taken a couple of days after the camp. Where do you find information that supports this statement of yours?

From Erlend Hem in the press conference. You should be able to watch it yourself here. I believe he said it after about an hour.

Well, not only was a rise between 1-2 cue to High Altitude claimed by both Dag Kaas and Røste, it was also supported by team doctor in speed skating Thor-Øistein Endsjø who said they could hardly get a rise more than 0,5 in high altitude training, and that they were confused by the high numbers reached by Cross-Country section. When asking how they did achive this, they didn't get any answers. http://sport.aftenposten.no/sport/skivm_2013/article270176.ece

As I said, I find the claim of 1-2 very suspect. However, I do not know in what context the "1-2" quote what made, and what was meant by it. Hence there is possibly some room for interpretation there.

Exactly, they said that 1998 test was taken before and after the 50 km race for men and 30 km race for women, and the mean value before was 16,4. Why should I assume that the mean value was only concerning the male skiers? Even so, it's a pretty high mean value.

I only intended to clear up any confusion, you obviously form your opinions/comments based on the information available to you. 16.4 is indeed a very high mean value. However, it's worth considering that the particular test in question was highly unusual in when it was performed. Also, as I understood it, the intention behind presenting that particular test was to show how "unpredictable" (sensitive to "variation") Hb measurements can be.

I'm not an expert, but both Saltin and Mørkeberg claims otherwise when they are taken by professionals. And the claim that Hemocue should constantly show to high numbers i s very doubtful. I'm not at all questioning that the HemoCue tests taken in Connection with races during the 90s showed significantly higher numbers than labory tests done mainly off season. But that is the whole point with this discussion. That HB-levels were higher in races due to blood manipulation.

I only commented on the well-established variance of the hemocue tests (which obviously can be both positive and negative), which makes it unsuitable for investigating single measurements. I avoided commenting on the claimed positive bias as I don't have much personal knowledge about it, but I believe dukoff addressed it a couple of pages back.

 

[Discgear]

From Erlend Hem in the press conference. You should be able to watch it yourself here. I believe he said it after about an hour.

Thank's a lot! I'll come back later.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

16.4 aint pretty high, it's WAY too high. The median in FIS-tests climbed from sub-15.0 to 16.3 due to widespread EPO-use and then fell below 15.0 again in 02/03. A median value of 16.4 from 10 norwegian skiers is extremely damning. The median Hb from FIS-races at altitude in the mid-00's was 15.X.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Here are the results from the 1998 WC-race in question.

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=1317

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

2. HJELMESET Odd-Bjoern

Claimed his normal Hb is 14.5.

http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2001/03/06/245493.html

3. DAEHLIE Bjoern

Median Hb of 15.3 according to off-season data.

5. JEVNE Erling

Around 15.0 according to off-season data.

7. SKJELDAL Kristen

Claimed his baseline is 15.2.

8. ESTIL Frode

Claimed to have a naturally high Hb - 16.0 as baseline.

9. SIVERTSEN Sture

Claimed to have a low Hb. Figures as low as 13 have been mentioned.

 

[Cloxxki]

Again Legkov pulls a Northug. This time on Cologna, to nip him for the 2nd place overall in the world cup. A sprint that was worth 5 figures +/-.
The way he took that last hill before the final straight, Oslo'ish again, just NOT the way I remember him skiing the past years. Beating Cologna who has even beaten Northug this way.
Legkov surely discovered himself, and gets better training advice from the Swiss than even the Swiss himself.

Randall seems to have done something special also. In a long race make up 8 places to secure 3rd overall in the world cup.

Justyna, tired? Not taking part cost her 5 figures.

Russian women, clean? Just odd how different there are from the men. No spark at all.

 

[kingjr]

Did you even watch CC-skiing the last couple of weeks, since his illness Cologna has been far below his usual form, today he was dead already when he came onto the finishing straight.

Not saying he is clean, but using todays race as an example is just silly.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

 

[Cloxxki]

Did you even watch CC-skiing the last couple of weeks, since his illness Cologna has been far below his usual form, today he was dead already when he came onto the finishing straight.

Not saying he is clean, but using todays race as an example is just silly.

Fair enough. But this is about Legkov more than Cologna.
Just watch the guy. Jump skating like that after 15km of hard pace is NOT a given in XC skiing. It's like 110rpm out of the saddle after 200km up a mountain. And yes, Cologna skies like that also.

 

[Discgear]

The average increase of 0.7 [and maximum of 1.2] was taken a couple of days after the altitude camp, when the athletes had returned to sea level altitude and regained their normal fluid balance [in other words, after the 48h adjustment Saltin has brought up a couple of times].

You were absolutely right in this.

Pointing to the diagram with 12 skiers living 17 days on 2000 m altitude and training up to 3200 m altitude, Hem said about the raised levels:

and this was not the day after, but some days after.

Not a very precise and somewhat peculiar statement. Hem is clearly indicating that the Norwegians in the 90s had found a way to keep raised HB-values gained in High Altitude camps longer than the 48 hour span that Saltin claims.

Saltin though, has support not only from Mørkeberg but also from former team doctor Thor-Øistein Endsjø in the Norwegian Biathlon-, Speed Skating- and Athletics associations, who said the following on the 13th of March:

- Er det mulig å få opp hemoglobinverdiene på naturlig vis, uten å ty til doping?
- Nei. Noen ligger lavt, selv om de har gode jernlagere, er friske og spiser normalt. De kan ikke gjøre noe for å få verdiene opp på normalt vis, sier Endsjø.

Høydetrening har av mange idrettsutøvere blitt brukt som for å få opp blodverdiene. Endsjø mener at forskning de siste ti årene viser at høydeopphold ikke gjør at man får høyere hemoglobin på lengre sikt.

- Forskningen viser at man kan få en liten stigning i hemoglobin, men den er helt marginal, og vil falle til normal verdi i løpet av to-tre døgn. Man vet også at man sjelden driver høydetrening på mer enn 1500-1700 meter over havet, og forskningen har vist at man må være en måned på 2500-3000 meter for å få høye verdier som 17-17,5, sier Endsjø.

Translation:
- Is it possible to raise the HB-values in a natural way, without doping?
- No. Some has low values despite good iron base, health and normal food intake. They can’t do anything to raise the values in a natural way.
High Altitude Training have been used by many athletes to raise the blood values. Endsjø claims that research the last 10 years have proved that High Altitude training will not raise the values on a long term.
-The Research shows that you might gain a slight raise in HB-values, but only marginal, and it will go back to normal values in the span of 2 to 3 days. We also know that you seldom commits High Altitude Training on more than 1500-1700 meters above sea level, and the research shows that you have to spend a month on 2500-3000 m to achieve values around 17-17,5

http://www.bt.no/sprek/--Blodverdiene-pavirker-ikke-kondisjonen-2860883.html#.UUv3BhwgaOS

Remember also Endsjø’s comments in Aftenposten after the documentary:

We also did high altitude training with our athletes, but was never in the neighborhood of the HB-values that X-country said they could reach. Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen, who also commited High Altitude Training, never reached values over 12,5 and 14,5. Our experience was that High Altitude could give an increase of 0,5, says Endsjø and adds:
- I’m overwhelmed with doubts

 

[Discgear]

Thank's for posting this diagram. It's indeed a smoking gun.

I saw it first on the Twitter of Jo Kristian Bergum. Finally a Norwegian that expresses some doubts concerning all the strange and diverse outbursts we've seen from the Norwegian Ski Federation last month. https://twitter.com/jobergum

Fair enough. But this is about Legkov more than Cologna.
Just watch the guy. Jump skating like that after 15km of hard pace is NOT a given in XC skiing. It's like 110rpm out of the saddle after 200km up a mountain. And yes, Cologna skies like that also.

Why this focus on Legkov? Talking about jump skating, there has been more remarkable performances among the ladies this season.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Lol, can't wait to hear the excuses for this one

Do you guys think the 2012 value is still fishy, or is it on a level which could be explained naturaly. I mean it's a lot higher as 1989, which probably offers a quiet clean standard.

 

[MrRoboto]

Do you guys think the 2012 value is still fishy, or is it on a level which could be explained naturaly. I mean it's a lot higher as 1989, which probably offers a quiet clean standard.

Can't really say much just by this graph. What are these 1989 tests of really? Same thing with the 2012 ones? Last one being of norwegians obviously? But what? when? where? If they are easily comparable, it's still only a ~0.4 increase from totally different racers. So again...Can't really say anything about this without knowing what's behind the numbers at least.

The other numbers seems pretty damning though.

 

[Trond Vidar]

Pretty damning stuff. Would like to see the press dig more into this to force more comments.

The graph is a bit silly though, visually everything looks like its 2x the value, when in reality it really isn't.

 

[python]

8. ESTIL Frode:
Claimed to have a naturally high Hb - 16.0 as baseline.

the claim seem valid as he had a fis certificate for 17.5.

 

[jkb1979]

Sure, it's made with google drive spreadsheet, if you like to edit it I can probably share it. FIS average values are from Lakertidning, 89 value from a paper by Videman. 2012 from NSF press conference.

Note that in the press conference Ola claims the venue sample was collected after warm up while the paper says the sample was taken after athletes arrived in car prior to any warm up.

 

[Cloxxki]

Why this focus on Legkov? Talking about jump skating, there has been more remarkable performances among the ladies this season.

I'd love to hear your notes on this season Discgear!

He just surprises me with this new skiing style. Apart from pushing the pace in chase groups, he is now also Northugian in his finish.
The Russian women are remarkable in being mediocre. Is there a generation of ladies who decides to stay clean and have a longer career? Or are they busy making it to Sochi without problems to rock the boat there?

It would be hard to name 10 top skiers, male or female, who come across as clean. Kalla perhaps, she's slower than when she hit the scene. Emil Joensson, brillantly consistent sprinter, but not unbeatable. Unique style. Doesn't transition into an unbeatable distance skier like Bjoergen did.
Northug has a lot of things going for himself. Downhill very stable, gets all the marginal gains that are visible in a race. Tactics. Consistent finisher, and only improved time trialing slightly the past years. Certainly not less clean than the other male Norwegians. I like him as we share a body style, pretty much. I know big guys CAN climb. And how hard gravity pulls on downhills.

In the back of the field, as in cycling, there are more clean athletes. I like Musgrave. Always quick, but fades when it's long and in-season. Off-season he seems closer to Northug types. As a cyclist I was the same, in the off-season I was playing with the really strong classics and marathon winners. In the summer, I was leagues behind.

What I'd like to know about blood doping with regards to XC. How many BB's, and how to time them? So many races over the winter period. Such consistent performances. The racers who show up less often (such as Bjoergen and maybe Olsen) would have the edge when reliant on BB's. Justyna races everything. She's not always stellar, but always hard to beat. Close to the front at worst. A few weak performances and DNS this year. When BB's ran out? It's a long and dense season to be reliant of BB's, especially if like her you go for every race.

I love Johaug to bits, but her making a brand out of the Holmenkollen 30k and then proceeding to win it again...not comfortable with that.

 

[Discgear]

Here are the results from the 1998 WC-race in question.

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=1317

Prokurorov, Smirnov and 8 Norwegians top ten. Best Swede some 8 minutes behind:

1 PROKUROROV Alexey RUS 2.32.25,3
2 HJELMESETH Odd Bjørn NOR 2.33.44,2
3 DÆHLIE Bjørn NOR 2.34.55,1
4 AUKLAND Anders NOR 2.35.58,5
5 JEVNE Erling NOR 2.36.46,1
6 SMIRNOV Vladimir KAZ 2.37.19,6
7 SKJELDAL Kristen NOR 2.37.43,1
8 ESTIL Frode NOR 2.38.17,5
9 SIVERTSEN Sture NOR 2.38.47,7
10 SØRGÅRD Krister NOR 2.38.57,1

Interesting to see Anders Auklands name. He is still going strong and is totally dominating the FIS Marathon Cup this winter together with his brother Jörgen.

What's striking is that Rønsen and NSF decided to publish those mean values of 16.4 taken before a race. No dehydration, no hemocue to excuse the high values, still NSF did publish this as an example of low natural values. It makes you wonder - how high are the in-season values taken by FIS with hemocue-equipment on the Norwegians those years?

Another disurbing fact, in this article from March 1998 we could see that the Norwegians were drinking a lot of water before the races to lower the values. The article claims that over 16 was normal for the Norwegians. http://www.vg.no/sport/ski/artikkel.php?

Foran stafetten i Hakuba målte Sture Sivertsen (31) en blodverdi på 13,3. Det er oppsiktsvekkende lavt, grensen for det lovlige er 18,5 - gjennomsnittet for de øvrige norske løperne ligger så vidt over 16.
- Riktignok ligger min normalverdi ganske lavt, rundt 14,5. Men verdien på 13,3 som ble målt foran 10 km i OL, er det laveste jeg noen gang har testet.
- Hvorfor lå Sivertsens blodverdi så lavt, Rønsen?
- Antagelig fordi Sture hadde vært påpasselig med å innta maksimalt med væske foran løpet da målingen ble foretatt.artid=6487

Before the relay in Hakuba Sture Sivertsen (31) measured a blood value of 13,3. That is remarkable since the permitted limit is 18,5, and the mean value for the Norwegian skiers is over 16.
- Yes, my normal value is fairly low, around 14,5. But the value 13,3 before the 10 km in the Olympics is the lowest I've measured.
- Why was Sivertsens value that low, Rønsen?
- Probably because Sture had been attentive to drink as much as possible before the race, when the test was performed.

 

[jkb1979]

More info from the paper:

16.4 +- 0.8 std.dev for male (10)
14.5 +- 0.5 std.dev for females (6)

Both is above the FIS screening averages for the 98 season. It's also the last race of the season. Wonder what the levels where during the Olympics in Nagano?
There is no chance altitude could have an effect on the [Hb] levels, the previous World Cups where in Lathi and Falun. No dehydration, fully rested.

The paper also identifies the subjects for any one that has a copy of the result list.

Mean finish time for the six female subjects in the
30-km race was 104 min (range 101-107 min), placing
number 2, 5, 7, 14, 18 and 19 among the 48 skiers
that finished. The ten male subjects finished their
50-km race at a mean time of 142 min (range
135–146 min), placing number 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10,
14, 20 and 34 among the 82 skiers that finished. All
subjects completed their race at maximal effort.

However, for males #14 is not Norwegian, last time I checked. I think that should have been #8 (Estil) but cannot be 100% sure.

If we estimate 15.1 for Aukland as unknown. 14.5 for Sivertsen as his normal values, and 16 for Sørgård (source vg.no). All the others needed to be at their peak values from the dagbladet 2001 posting.

2 HJELMESETH Odd Bjørn 15.6 (peak dagbladet.no 2001)
3 DÆHLIE Bjørn 16.6 (Peak NSF longitude series)
4 AUKLAND Anders 15.1 (Unknown)
5 JEVNE Erling 16.7 (Peak dagbladet.no 2001)
7 SKJELDAL Kristen 17.5 (peak dagbladet.no 2001)
ESTIL Frode 17.5 (peak dagbladet.no 2001)
9 SIVERTSEN Sture 14.5 (vg.no as posted above - probably lower since since he was at around 13.3 1 week before)
10 SØRGÅRD Krister 16 (Says he used to be around 16 in this article http://www.rb.no/lokal_sport/article1340758.ece)
20 ALSGAARD Thomas 17.1 (peak dagbladet.no 2001)
34 BJONVIKEN Tore 17.5 (peak dagbladet.no 2001)

Average 16.41
Std.dev 1.07232872240228

This list is just pure speculation since one is unknown and 2 are highly uncertain. But for sure there are many above 17 to get an average of 16.4.

 

[Discgear]

More info from the paper:

16.4 +- 0.8 std.dev for male (10)
14.5 +- 0.5 std.dev for females (6)

Both is above the FIS screening averages for the 98 season. It's also the last race of the season. Wonder what the levels where during the Olympics in Nagano?
There is no chance altitude could have an effect on the [Hb] levels, the previous World Cups where in Lathi and Falun. No dehydration, fully rested.

Good post. This scientific research is truly damaging to the official argumentation that's been put forward by NSF the last weeks.

1. No sign of dehydration and thus higher HB-levels after the races, despite these being maybe the toughest races there is in X-country skiing - Holmenkollen 50 and 30 km in classical style.
Men, mean values before the race 16.4 - after the race 16.0
Women, mean values before the race 14.5 - after the race 14.4
The mean levels are lower after the race, not higher!

2. No High Altitude Camp before the race that could explain high mean HB-levels. Coming from low altitude in Falun and Lahti, and race in Holmenkollen some 2-300 meters above sea level.

3. This was vein samples, not hemocue. Still very high HB-levels.

4. Pre race test was performed before warm-up just after arrival.

5. No illnesses before the race: None of the athletes had any illness during the last 5 days before the competition and no episodes of illness were reported during the week following the race.


The main purpose of this scientific report from 2003 was not about doping and HB-levels. The purpose was to examine health risks in exhaustive long-distance cross-country ski racing. It's interesting that Ola Rønsen was the main author and it certainly casts doubt to the argumentaion put forward by him and others during the NSF press-conference.

 

[struudel]

Andrus Veerpalu founded not guilty of using growth hormone by CAS today.