Doping in XC skiing

[Libertine Seguros]

As we're on a cycling forum, Rui Costa is probably the most high-profile case of somebody who tested positive, claimed tainted supplements (most of us rolled our eyes at this, having heard that one a hundred times), only to go on and prove that the supplements genuinely were tainted and have his ban overturned.

Legkov's behaviour is a bit strange. I don't get it. As you say, he had his best achievements with Reto, and why change a winning formula? Especially in such a strange way?

 

[BullsFan22]

As we're on a cycling forum, Rui Costa is probably the most high-profile case of somebody who tested positive, claimed tainted supplements (most of us rolled our eyes at this, having heard that one a hundred times), only to go on and prove that the supplements genuinely were tainted and have his ban overturned.

Legkov's behaviour is a bit strange. I don't get it. As you say, he had his best achievements with Reto, and why change a winning formula? Especially in such a strange way?

Money and assurance. Mutko offered Legkov a good deal (and car, apparently). This isn't a definite move to the Kaminsky (Russian sprint team head coach) group, as Legkov himself said that he is trying new things and he thinks he will eventually go back to the Burgermeister/Knauthe group. The Burgermeister/Knauthe group is in great shape and they are looking for great results and think that will happen. Considering how many good skiers are on that men's national team (and non-national team, it has to be said), fighting for spots on the World Cup and World Championship teams is gonna be pretty crazy. Going back to Legkov, after having breakthrough after breakthrough these last 3 seasons, I think he is much more relaxed and will be even better this year. Remember his history at major championships since Torino. He's had an unlucky fall/break/bonk at every championship, being so close in a number of races, yet unable to come through. Now that he has that behind him, I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls out some more gold medal races in Falun.

 

[python]

just in (swedish)
http://www.expressen.se/sport/langdskidor/avstangd-tavlade-mot-kalla-under-nytt-namn/

5 are suspected by fis. none of them seems to have been slated for the 1st world cup race next week...

 

[neineinei]

just in (swedish)
http://www.expressen.se/sport/langdskidor/avstangd-tavlade-mot-kalla-under-nytt-namn/

5 are suspected by fis. none of them seems to have been slated for the 1st world cup race next week...

So FIS has a list of five provisionally suspended cross country skiers, but it is secret.

There are 3 cross country skiers on RUSADA provisionally suspension list. It is not secret. A peculiar difference between RUSADA and FIS.

http://www.rusada.ru/sites/default/files/content/files/PS(26).pdf

 

[python]

So FIS has a list of five provisionally suspended cross country skiers, but it is secret.

i dont think the author of the swedish article did a particularly good job explaining the issue context re. the athlete featured in his article...the usual, isn't it, when doping is the subject ?

as i followed all the xc events of the last weekend closely, herein i will try to fill the void.

specifically, the article is about the previously suspended for doping polish female xc skier kornelia kubinska. she came to race in bruksvallarna, sweden under THAT name. here is the official results list of the ladies 5k classic..she was 22nd
http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=CC&raceid=24666

she is the same skier who was suspended for epo doping in the vancouver olympics under a different name - kornelia marek (perhaps she got married)...she served the misdeed an was rightfully at the start last weekend.

it turns out, the race organizers were sent by the fis a list of 5 skiers they were supposed to watch for and prevent from starting. kornelia wasn't one of them, though, the article says one russian woman was.
applying plain logic, the list of 5 must include both, the currently serving doping bans and those CURRENTLY suspended (that is, failing an a-sample recently and expecting the final verdict soon).

the way i interpret the story - the 5 names are NOT NECESSARILY anything new and likely already suspended elite (duer and a ukrainian skier come to mind) or the 2nd tear eastern europeans plus the finns (?) who had an international license and currently serving or recently failing a dope test.

0r is it about the something bigger ?

 

[sworks]

One more: Loginov

http://www.expressen.se/sport/skidskytte/rysk-dopingskandal---loginov-stangs-av/

From november last year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

November last year? This kid had been going toe to toe with Johannes Bø in the juniors too, and was good on the World Cup all year.

12 months to process the positive and timing on the eve of the season... this feels like cycling's tendency to bunch positives and scandals in late June!

Still, I'm a bit sad as he was one of the guys on that Russian squad I liked. Now there's only Dima left, since Ustyugov's retired prematurely and Loginov's been busted.

 

[the sceptic]

doping to keep up with the clean scandinavians ain't easy.

 

[neineinei]

November last year? This kid had been going toe to toe with Johannes Bø in the juniors too, and was good on the World Cup all year.

12 months to process the positive and timing on the eve of the season... this feels like cycling's tendency to bunch positives and scandals in late June!

Still, I'm a bit sad as he was one of the guys on that Russian squad I liked. Now there's only Dima left, since Ustyugov's retired prematurely and Loginov's been busted.

http://www.dpa-international.com/ne...est-from-november-2013-sample-a-43438468.html

"The International Biathlon Union (IBU) had some samples from last season retested, which we are entitled to do under our rules," IBU secretary general Nicole Resch said. "The reason for this is that there is, since autumn 2014, a new test method for the detection of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency laboratories."

Substance unnamed.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Very interesting, with the substance kept under wraps. Wonder if it's selective retesting in which case Loginov must have had something that flagged testers' concerns, or if there will be quite a few athletes who are nervous at the moment, with either a better test for something we knew about or a test for something we didn't... but we don't know what.

 

[neineinei]

Very interesting, with the substance kept under wraps. Wonder if it's selective retesting in which case Loginov must have had something that flagged testers' concerns, or if there will be quite a few athletes who are nervous at the moment, with either a better test for something we knew about or a test for something we didn't... but we don't know what.

Someone on Twitter writes:

Retests with the new method revealed further positive tests for the already banned Russians Ekaterina Iourieva and Irina Starych

The IBU president said Iourieva and Starych had been targeted when they were caught for EPO prior to Sotchi. So there is a possibilety they were after Loginov too then.

The Russian media/Google translate seems to say Loginovs sample was positive for EPO?

https://translate.google.com/transl...sports.ru/biathlon/1025299387.html&edit-text=

 

[neineinei]

Before the start of the 2014/ 2015 biathlon season, the IBU pro-actively decided to re-analyze some samples that showed atypical results in the previous season and were therefore stored for potential future analysis.
The reason for this is a new testing method for WADA laboratories that has become available in the fall of 2014 to prove the presence of recombinant EPO.
With this new tool, the IBU is optimistic to have an even more powerful tool to keep the sport absolutely clean.
As a result, three suspensions were implemented this week, two of them on athletes who were already suspended by the Anti – Doping Hearing Panel this year, and another one, provisionally.

http://www.dopinglist.com/?action=news&news=article&id=322

 

[BullsFan22]

Wonder when the smack down on ol' wonderboy is

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11141961

 

[Cance > TheRest]

doping to keep up with the clean scandinavians ain't easy.

Funny how it's only skiers from the eastern part of Europe that gets busted every time. The norwegians aren't that suspicious though, they're naturally gifted. I think french xc/biathlon skiers are generally more suspicious in their performances

 

[python]

i wasn't available when the loginov positive hit the news. so, i spent some time this morning trying to make sense of it, based both on what has been released officially and other more or less reliable facts..

being always skeptical of the incompetent/hyped/biased msm reports, the 1st thing i did was to go to the prime source - the ibu site. the is nothing there about the loginov postive. nothing. ZERO.

then, the next thing to figure out was WHY did it take a full year ?

i am not impervious to a theory that the eastern europeans are treated with bias. they probably are. but in THIS case the answer could be as benign as it is simple - the NEW governing wada document (TD2014EPO) to which the labs have to legally stick...became effective less than 3 months ago . on 1 september 2014.

I just read it. among other things, it relaxed the confirmation criteria in certain atypical cases that previously would NOT have been positive. what the media attributed to the ibu officials saying about the retesting of loginov and his russian doping 'sisters' is consistent with the new wada guidence.

was loginov relentlessly hunted down ?

almost certainly, yes. he had been tested 16 (!) times for epo AFTER the 26 november, 2013 test that failed him. by any measure, this is an enormous expenditure of the ibu resources on a single athlete. someone less lazy than i could prolly extract more stats and compare them to the ibu testing pool and the total # of tests. they were after loginov as there was noone else to test

another cute little fact emerged that loginov's natural haemoglobin is purported to be btwn 17 and 18. true or not, but there is no evidence he had a dispensation...

all around, another sad story about a promising athlete likely let down by the docs lagging behind the latest western micro-dosing techniques...plus, i sense, to make it even more disgusting, it WAS laced with politics.

 

[neineinei]

i wasn't available when the loginov positive hit the news. so, i spent some time this morning trying to make sense of it, based both on what has been released officially and other more or less reliable facts..

being always skeptical of the incompetent/hyped/biased msm reports, the 1st thing i did was to go to the prime source - the ibu site. the is nothing there about the loginov postive. nothing. ZERO.

then, the next thing to figure out was WHY did it take a full year ?

i am not impervious to a theory that the eastern europeans are treated with bias. they probably are. but in THIS case the answer could be as benign as it is simple - the NEW governing wada document (TD2014EPO) to which the labs have to legally stick...became effective less than 3 months ago . on 1 september 2014.

I just read it. among other things, it relaxed the confirmation criteria in certain atypical cases that previously would NOT have been positive. what the media attributed to the ibu officials saying about the retesting of loginov and his russian doping 'sisters' is consistent with the new wada guidence.

The news was "leaked" by the Russian Biathlon Union, or rather by Alexander Tikhonov, the guy who lost the election for IBU president again this autumn. First IBU said something like, "um, yeah, he's had a positive, no further comment now, we'll give a statement in a few days". And then media probably helped them figure they had to say something right away and Nicole Resch gave a short statement. IBU haven't had the time to update their website yet, this wasn't according to plan.

About Tikhonov and Besseberg and the election for IBU president (2014) (Norwegian)
About Tikhonov and Besseberg and the election for IBU president (2010) (Norwegian)
Sport.ru about the delayed positive of Loginov (Google translate Russian>English, messing with names)

 

[the sceptic]

Funny how it's only skiers from the eastern part of Europe that gets busted every time. The norwegians aren't that suspicious though, they're naturally gifted. I think french xc/biathlon skiers are generally more suspicious in their performances

Naturally gifted? Based on what?

I think OEB is the most suspicious athlete in biathlon currently.

 

[neineinei]

Juha Lallukka banned for two years after WADA appeal to CAS

WADA Statement on the Juha Lallukka case

WADA welcomes the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to uphold the appeal it filed against the decision of the Finnish appeal board to exonerate cross-country skier Juha Lallukka for an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) relating to human Growth Hormone (hGH).

The decision to find the athlete had committed a rule violation and sanction the athlete for a period of two years fully answers all the issues raised by the CAS panel in the Andrus Veerpalu case. It also means there is no doubt surrounding the validity and reliability of the recently published version 2 of the Guidelines for the application of the human Growth Hormone (hGH) Isoform Differential Immunoassays for detection of doping with human Growth Hormone in sport.

WADA Director General, David Howman: “WADA is pleased that, in reaching its decision, CAS recognized that all issues raised by the Veerpalu case have now been answered in a “convincing manner”, and that WADA had fully met the burden of proof required for Mr. Lallukka to be sanctioned.

“WADA is glad that the issues relating to hGH testing have been resolved, and continues to encourage all anti-doping organizations to analyze samples as part of their regular anti-doping program.”

https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2014-11/wada-statement-on-the-juha-lallukka-case

 

[neineinei]

i am not impervious to a theory that the eastern europeans are treated with bias. they probably are. but in THIS case the answer could be as benign as it is simple - the NEW governing wada document (TD2014EPO) to which the labs have to legally stick...became effective less than 3 months ago . on 1 september 2014.

I just read it. among other things, it relaxed the confirmation criteria in certain atypical cases that previously would NOT have been positive. what the media attributed to the ibu officials saying about the retesting of loginov and his russian doping 'sisters' is consistent with the new wada guidence.

Could any of the EPO positives in cycling be attributed to the new WADA regulations? There was a small rush of additions to the UCI list in September, Some of them were announced a little bit late, but nothing like a years delay.

 

[python]

Could any of the EPO positives in cycling be attributed to the new WADA regulations?

it is not easy to answer with a high degree of confidence w/o knowing at least the specific variant of epo a busted athlete was using as the new wada regulations have become more flexible and inclusive to keep up with new products.

however, on your list the recent uci positives are dated BEFORE 1 september, 2014 when the latest tech document went into effect. so, at least technically, those positives are unlikely related to detection improvements referred to by the ibu in the loginov case.

that said, there was a consistent general improvement in the detection capabilities, sensitivities and specificity. invariably, the epo detection window has been extended with such methods as SDS-PAGE or SAR-PAGE. also, the use of the golden standard of testing - mass spectrometry - has become a reality for certain types of epo stimulating agents.

and finally, even though the latest epo guidance have just become effective, there are well known cases that have withstood the cas legal test, when the testing authority encouraged labs to use EXPERIMENTAL, not fully validated tests for busting dopers. in that sense, your examples might be a case in point.

also, as far as i know (but this could be an outdated info) the uci always preferred the lausanne lab for epo and blood where as the ibu (including the logino case) preferred Cologne.

arguably, the cologne lab has always been the most advanced wada lab.

 

[peloton]

Marit Björgen looks ready for the season

 

[frenchfry]

Marit Björgen looks ready for the season

It looks like her head has been photoshopped onto a mans body.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

That's a whole lot of situps right there.

 

[LaFlorecita]

It looks like her head has been photoshopped onto a mans body.

ewww now you mention it...

 

[jens_attacks]

she's a freaking beast, one of the best athletes i ever witnessed.