zapata said:
That blue column might just as easily be called "Gunde Svan in the golden era of blood transfusions".
Sour grapes from a norwegian, what a shocker.
Had you done some research, you would have know that in 1989, Gundes most successful World Championships (he won three gold) the blood test showed no signs of any doping. In fact, mean values at the 1989 World Nordic Ski Championships were lower than population reference values, as would be expected from plasma volume expansion associated with endurance training.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10755280
There is no evidence against the Swedes. But there are a lot of suspect results and HB values from Norweigan skiers during the 90's.
Swedish (male) Hb values during the 90's.
Season, In-season avg, Off-season avg, Peak value
93–94 156,7±7,7 153,6±4,6 172 (No limit)
94–95 150,5±9,3 149,5±7,2 166
95–96 152,9±9,2 149,5±9,2 168
96–97 152,2±7,4 149,5±1,2 164 (limit: 185)
97–98 146,4±3,5 149,2±3,1 161
98–99 150,2±4,0 147,7±2,5 159
99–00 149,3±7,0 154,5±8,1 168
00–01 150,8±6,4 150,7±4,7 161 (limit: 175)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12792206
This has been posted in the thread before:
This 30km freestyle race from 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer is a good example. We know Myllyla (3rd) took EPO. Most likely Isometsa (6th) and Rasanen (11th) as well. Botvinov of Austria (4th) and Smirnov (10th) of Kazakhstan were considered amongst the biggest dopers of the time. Muehlegg (9th) is a giveaway. You're implying (and I am agreeing) that Italians doped - that takes care of DeZolt (5th) and Fauner (7th). The only clean skiers in top 11, according to you, would have been Alsgaard (1st by a mile) and Dahlie (2nd by another mile).
Furthermore, consider this:
1995; some skiers had 20 g/100 ml with all medal winners above 17.5 g /100 ml. From 1997 upper allowed limit for men 18.5 g/100 ml.
1999 some 30 male skiers between 17.0- 18.7 g/100 ml; medal winners > 17.0 g/100ml.
Just check out the guys who did medal in those Championships:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIS_Nordic_World_Ski_Championships_1995
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIS_Nordic_World_Ski_Championships_1997