Doping in XC skiing

[Discgear]

Another Norwegian scandal is boiling after the latest suit fixing scandal in Ski Jump. The Finns are furious. Apparently the Norwegian Ski Team were using a "glue machine" creating a perfect wax between the races in the Sprint, something that has always been forbidden. However, they claim they got a permission from FIS, but that was not communicated to the other teams.

 

[kingjr]

Another Norwegian scandal is boiling after the latest suit fixing scandal in Ski Jump. The Finns are furious. Apparently the Norwegian Ski Team were using a "glue machine" creating a perfect wax between the races in the Sprint, something that has always been forbidden. However, they claim they got a permission from FIS, but that was not communicated to the other teams.

Assuming that's true, is FIS obliged to communicate this to the other teams?

 

[kingjr]

In other news:

[The Italian Ski Federation] has announced that the appeals committee of the Italian Anti-Doping Agency has decided to uphold Passler's appeal against the provisional suspension imposed on her. This opens the way for the biathlete to compete in the upcoming Olympic competitions in her home town of Anterselva. Passler will join the Italian squad on Monday. She will therefore miss the sprint and pursuit start, but will be allowed to compete in the relay and mass start.

Milano Cortina 2026

OL-ilden ble tent 6. februar, og de påfølgende ukene skal det arrangeres 116 medaljeøvelser. Lekene arrangeres offisielt i Milano og Cortina i Italia.

www.nrk.no

 

[Discgear]

Assuming that's true, is FIS obliged to communicate this to the other teams?

What's your own thought?

 

[kingjr]

Another Norwegian scandal is boiling after the latest suit fixing scandal in Ski Jump. The Finns are furious. Apparently the Norwegian Ski Team were using a "glue machine" creating a perfect wax between the races in the Sprint, something that has always been forbidden. However, they claim they got a permission from FIS, but that was not communicated to the other teams.

So apparently the situation is this:

The tool in question had not been listed among approved equipment at the team leaders’ meeting, but was not expressly forbidden either.

The responsible FIS Race Director, Michael Lamplot, has confirmed that Norway had asked a FIS controller whether the tool in question was allowed and received permission after the controller consulted him.
Lamplot acknowledged that this information was not shared with other teams and admitted that this lack of communication was his mistake.



At the same time, Lamplot confirmed another rumour, namely that a bottle containing a liquid substance had been seen and photographed on the US waxing table, even though liquid products of any kind were prohibited in the waxing zone. He admitted that officials had missed this during inspections, calling it an honest oversight in a busy area, and said there would be no further consequences given that two days had already passed since the race. In a statement to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, the US team confirmed the violation, explaining that the bottle contained klister remover used only to clean hands.

Sverige reagerer på Norges smøretriks: – Høres merkelig ut

Det er full oppvask etter det som skjedde i smøresonen i OL-sprinten: Konkurrerende nasjoner mener Norge fikk en fordel – USA erkjenner regelbrudd.

www.nrk.no

 

[kingjr]

What's your own thought?

I think that Norway was simply smarter by asking for permission. The other teams' lack of initiative can't be laid at Norway's door, nor should be laid at that of FIS. That being said, if the rules require FIS to share this information, then the race director needs to face repercussions.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

In other news:

[The Italian Ski Federation] has announced that the appeals committee of the Italian Anti-Doping Agency has decided to uphold Passler's appeal against the provisional suspension imposed on her. This opens the way for the biathlete to compete in the upcoming Olympic competitions in her home town of Anterselva. Passler will join the Italian squad on Monday. She will therefore miss the sprint and pursuit start, but will be allowed to compete in the relay and mass start.

Milano Cortina 2026

OL-ilden ble tent 6. februar, og de påfølgende ukene skal det arrangeres 116 medaljeøvelser. Lekene arrangeres offisielt i Milano og Cortina i Italia.

www.nrk.no

Well, she obviously won‘t be able to compete in the mass start unless literally every other athlete at the Olympics pulls out of the race, but a very *uh* unusual decision.

 

[search]

lining her up for the relay would probably be too much of a risk as well

 

[search]

apparently she really has a case, with her mother suffering from cancer, and (according to Passler) taking exactly that medication.

If true, she may have a realistic chance to be cleared in the end, I assume.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Bulgaria with oldschool Wolfgang Pichler suddenly flying on the women's side in Biathlon is pretty suspect.

 

[Rob5091]

Nutella, the doper's number 1 source! (should n't cutlery not be passed around amongst people?)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...mpics-rebecca-passler-doping-positive-nutella

In her appeal, the 24-year-old said she lived with her mother who was taking letrozole as part of her treatment for breast cancer and that the contamination likely came from a spoon which she used to eat some Nutella hazelnut spread for breakfast the day before the test.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Nutella, the doper's number 1 source! (should n't cutlery not be passed around amongst people?)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...mpics-rebecca-passler-doping-positive-nutella

We went from "mah Mamma's tortellini" saving Errati to "mah Mamma's Nutella" for Passler...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Bulgaria with oldschool Wolfgang Pichler suddenly flying on the women's side in Biathlon is pretty suspect.

Similar to his work with Sweden in 2018.

That said, it clearly isn't working universally - Dimitrova and Hristova were very similar talents coming through youth and juniors, Dimitrova was if anything slightly better before Pichler came on board, but since then she's stagnated horribly while Hristova has improved drastically (she was already improving clearly before this, but this is another level on top of that entirely), while Todorova is one of those "on her day she can do it" types who was very quick as a junior and had both World Cup and World Championships top 20s all the way back in 2019-20. And at least she has World Cup podiums from last season, 7 top 10s in all and a LOT of results from 11th to 20th that make her at least a reasonable outsider to have been that close to a medal compared to some. The timing of it is questionable to say the least, and she's Vladimir Iliev's partner as well for whatever that's worth.

Curiously, Hristova as a youth competitor and in her U20 year - so before Pichler joined the Bulgarian team - was very good among her contemporaries. She was beating the likes of Andexer, Fichtner and Kirkeeide at the Salt Lake City Junior Worlds back in 2022 (although she was DQed from the sprint), part of the Bulgarian bronze medal relay (with Dimitrova and Popova), and took two medals at the Madona Junior Euros in 2023 ahead of the likes of Michelon, Richard (the two French women being a year older than her too), Andexer, Puff, Tannheimer (albeit Tannheimer is two years younger than her), Fichtner and Bondoux. You would expect the greater resources to bring the top teams' athletes ahead of her by now, and indeed Michelon and Kirkeeide are clearly stronger athletes over the course of a season at this point in time, and although they've been disappointing at these Olympics, so are Grotian and Tannheimer. Of the four women that beat a three-miss Hristova back in 2022, only Iva Morić has failed to become a World Cup regular, and that's largely because she hit 20/20 in that race, her ski speed stopped her from progressing in the German team and she's switched to representing Croatia.

Pichler's getting them to peak like this - especially after not racing since Ruhpolding - may be suspicious, I recall a lot of eyebrows raised about Hanna Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson back in 2018 too. A 20/20 Individual is, and remains, the most likely way for such an outsider to score a medal, but in my opinion Lora Hristova isn't even the most surprising Individual podium this season - I think Leinamo was more of a shock. Last year at the World Championships Hristova was 13th on 19/20, and would have been 7th with the full house. In Östersund she was 23rd in the Individual on 18/20, and would have been 7th with the full house. This time she hit the full house. Julia Simon won the Individual in Lenzerheide '25 on 19/20 and Lora Hristova was +2'30 on 19/20. This year Julia Simon won the Individual in Antholz on 19/20, and Lora Hristova was +1'04 on 20/20 - so she improved her time relative to Simon by only around 26" over 15km, so overall it's not quite as eyebrow-raising as it may seem from the surface.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Similar to his work with Sweden in 2018.

That said, it clearly isn't working universally - Dimitrova and Hristova were very similar talents coming through youth and juniors, Dimitrova was if anything slightly better before Pichler came on board, but since then she's stagnated horribly while Hristova has improved drastically (she was already improving clearly before this, but this is another level on top of that entirely), while Todorova is one of those "on her day she can do it" types who was very quick as a junior and had both World Cup and World Championships top 20s all the way back in 2019-20. And at least she has World Cup podiums from last season, 7 top 10s in all and a LOT of results from 11th to 20th that make her at least a reasonable outsider to have been that close to a medal compared to some. The timing of it is questionable to say the least, and she's Vladimir Iliev's partner as well for whatever that's worth.

Curiously, Hristova as a youth competitor and in her U20 year - so before Pichler joined the Bulgarian team - was very good among her contemporaries. She was beating the likes of Andexer, Fichtner and Kirkeeide at the Salt Lake City Junior Worlds back in 2022 (although she was DQed from the sprint), part of the Bulgarian bronze medal relay (with Dimitrova and Popova), and took two medals at the Madona Junior Euros in 2023 ahead of the likes of Michelon, Richard (the two French women being a year older than her too), Andexer, Puff, Tannheimer (albeit Tannheimer is two years younger than her), Fichtner and Bondoux. You would expect the greater resources to bring the top teams' athletes ahead of her by now, and indeed Michelon and Kirkeeide are clearly stronger athletes over the course of a season at this point in time, and although they've been disappointing at these Olympics, so are Grotian and Tannheimer. Of the four women that beat a three-miss Hristova back in 2022, only Iva Morić has failed to become a World Cup regular, and that's largely because she hit 20/20 in that race, her ski speed stopped her from progressing in the German team and she's switched to representing Croatia.

Pichler's getting them to peak like this - especially after not racing since Ruhpolding - may be suspicious, I recall a lot of eyebrows raised about Hanna Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson back in 2018 too. A 20/20 Individual is, and remains, the most likely way for such an outsider to score a medal, but in my opinion Lora Hristova isn't even the most surprising Individual podium this season - I think Leinamo was more of a shock. Last year at the World Championships Hristova was 13th on 19/20, and would have been 7th with the full house. In Östersund she was 23rd in the Individual on 18/20, and would have been 7th with the full house. This time she hit the full house. Julia Simon won the Individual in Lenzerheide '25 on 19/20 and Lora Hristova was +2'30 on 19/20. This year Julia Simon won the Individual in Antholz on 19/20, and Lora Hristova was +1'04 on 20/20 - so she improved her time relative to Simon by only around 26" over 15km, so overall it's not quite as eyebrow-raising as it may seem from the surface.

Pichler said that mainly focussing on the Olympics instead of World Cup races was the choice and they did 3 weeks of altitude in Antholz instead of going to Nove Mesto.

I can admit that he probably has a system that helps you to perform better relative to your ability than those who focus too much of their energy on the World Cup, but still. The guy is oldschool (just like many people involved with the sport in Antholz) and multiple skiers from a small, more fringe nation suddenly flying at the same time during the Olympics is usually a red flag.

 

[search]

We went from "mah Mamma's tortellini" saving Errati to "mah Mamma's Nutella" for Passler...

just saw something in German media about it, where they said that film-coated tablets like the medication allegedly used by her mother don't leave traces. They dropped it from 15m height without anything happening to the tablet, making it unlikely that remainders of it would end up on a spoon.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Pichler said that mainly focussing on the Olympics instead of World Cup races was the choice and they did 3 weeks of altitude in Antholz instead of going to Nove Mesto.

I can admit that he probably has a system that helps you to perform better relative to your ability than those who focus too much of their energy on the World Cup, but still. The guy is oldschool (just like many people involved with the sport in Antholz) and multiple skiers from a small, more fringe nation suddenly flying at the same time during the Olympics is usually a red flag.

It's probably also worth noting that the main biathlon centres in Bulgaria are all at relative altitude. Troyan's facility (Iliev, Todorova and Hristova's home facility) is up on Belmeken Pass at about 1350m, Borovets is at around 1400m, and Bansko's biathlon facility is at the Banderishka plateau at 1600m.

With the exception of the Junior Euros in Madona, Latvia, pretty much all of Hristova's best results come at venues of comparatively high altitude - Soldier Hollow at 1700m, Lenzerheide at 1400m, and now Antholz at 1600m.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Another Norwegian scandal is boiling after the latest suit fixing scandal in Ski Jump. The Finns are furious. Apparently the Norwegian Ski Team were using a "glue machine" creating a perfect wax between the races in the Sprint, something that has always been forbidden. However, they claim they got a permission from FIS, but that was not communicated to the other teams.

They also got caught testing skis on the classic loop for the Men's relay when the tracks were already closed and only got a yellow card for it...
https://www.sport1.de/news/olympia/...langlauf-arger-norwegen-nach-staffel-bestraft
The Norwegian skiing federation and systematic cheating, name a more iconic duo!

 

[BullsFan22]

ROFLMAO

 

[Libertine Seguros]

French biathlon reeking of Sky 2012 right now.

"We're dominating most of the season because everybody else is preparing for the Olympics"

"Actually it's better to keep racing at 95% than to give 100% and have a break. It'll be different at the Olympics"

"Oh, we won everything at the Olympics and skied everybody else into dust because everybody else just messed up their preparation for the Olympics"...

 

[saunaking]

ROFLMAO

Mapei!

 

[Pozzovivo]

Nutella, the doper's number 1 source! (should n't cutlery not be passed around amongst people?)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...mpics-rebecca-passler-doping-positive-nutella

How unlucky...

 

[Pozzovivo]

If Pogacar could outpunch Van der Poel, out ITT Remco, and outsprint Milan he would be like J.H.Klabo.

This kind of dominance is either very suspect, or completely normal - because all of the XC events and most of the big bike races essentially measure the same thing and one guy is better than the rest on this thing.

How can one person be so much better than all of the rest? Maybe that's completely normal in niche sports.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If Pogacar could outpunch Van der Poel, out ITT Remco, and outsprint Milan he would be like J.H.Klabo.

This kind of dominance is either very suspect, or completely normal - because all of the XC events and most of the big bike races essentially measure the same thing and one guy is better than the rest on this thing.

How can one person by so much better than all of the rest? Maybe that's completely normal in niche sports.

There's a combination of factors.

Part of it is that the increasing homogenization of the calendar has led to a heavy increase in mass start distance races that stay as a pack quite deep into the race, a heavier sprint-bias to the calendar and shorter, easier circuits to improve the stadium fans' viewing experience, resulting in frequently taking things to late-race short uphills or sprints at which he is the best. Think of the many years of women's cycling being dominated by a certain type of rolling-to-hilly circuits parcours; Marianne Vos was unquestionably the best in the world at the time, but the proliferation on the calendar of the specific characteristic of race that she was best at, and the marginalised nature of true specialists in areas of her weakness (such as TTs or multi-climb high mountain stages) meant her domination was greater than it would have been otherwise.

Another component element is that Norway has a huge budgetary advantage over most opposition, spending far more on optimising ski preparation and so on than anybody else. In addition to this advantage, they have been shown on numerous occasions to be willing to push the envelope in terms of acceptability, such as being caught breaking closed course regulations to test skis at these Games, and the very infamous bus full of asthma nebulizers back several years ago. And in the Scandinavian Tour a few years ago they were as blatant as having a point-to-point race in heavy snow where they put machines out to clear the tracks right in front of their own skiers.

Further to this, you have the fact that Norway's level of dominance has led to an exodus of talents and funding from many nations, especially seeing a bleed over to biathlon where the regular shooting breaks at least give a chance for people to win if they aren't the very best, if the circumstances are right on the day. We have also seen some Norwegian athletes - Hans Christer Holund and Simen Hegstad Krüger are two notables - complain about the Norwegian authorities further tailoring things for their preferred golden goose, either by way of the courses used or by their selection decisions.

For a long time, men's XC had devolved into a straight Norwegian national championships, and the only ones that seemed to be able to break up that hegemony were the Russians, especially Aleksandr Bolshunov, who emerged into the only realistic rival for Klæbo. He won the skiathlon and the 50k in Beijing, and also took the decisive leg in the winning relay. The exclusion of Russia for political reasons has therefore removed arguably the only man who could realistically be a threat to Klæbo on these courses.

The point is really rather that Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is really, really good. This there can be no denying. There is a good chance that, were we seeing competition on a fairer financial footing, on an older-style variety of longer and more challenging courses, and if his main rival was allowed to start, he would still be winning the majority of the events that he is. But these are all factors that have made it easier for Klæbo to become as dominant as he is, and it's why you will still see "yeah, but..." comments all over the place when discussing his achievements. It also doesn't help him that he comes straight off the back of Petter Northug's career, a very brash and divisive personality who had a very, very similar skillset to Klæbo's, and as a lot of sections of the media essentially painted Klæbo as Petter's successor in his early days, some of that divisiveness has rubbed off on people's perception of Klæbo even years down the line when he's long outgrown that comparison.

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo may or may not be the best of all time. Statistically, he's already there. But the number of things that have been stacked in his favour in time, and the undeniably cookie-cutter nature of a lot of the courses on which he's padded his win count, mean that many are reluctant to anoint him over an often overly-romanticised view of the past.

 

[Pozzovivo]

There's a combination of factors.

Part of it is that the increasing homogenization of the calendar has led to a heavy increase in mass start distance races that stay as a pack quite deep into the race, a heavier sprint-bias to the calendar and shorter, easier circuits to improve the stadium fans' viewing experience, resulting in frequently taking things to late-race short uphills or sprints at which he is the best. Think of the many years of women's cycling being dominated by a certain type of rolling-to-hilly circuits parcours; Marianne Vos was unquestionably the best in the world at the time, but the proliferation on the calendar of the specific characteristic of race that she was best at, and the marginalised nature of true specialists in areas of her weakness (such as TTs or multi-climb high mountain stages) meant her domination was greater than it would have been otherwise.

Another component element is that Norway has a huge budgetary advantage over most opposition, spending far more on optimising ski preparation and so on than anybody else. In addition to this advantage, they have been shown on numerous occasions to be willing to push the envelope in terms of acceptability, such as being caught breaking closed course regulations to test skis at these Games, and the very infamous bus full of asthma nebulizers back several years ago. And in the Scandinavian Tour a few years ago they were as blatant as having a point-to-point race in heavy snow where they put machines out to clear the tracks right in front of their own skiers.

Further to this, you have the fact that Norway's level of dominance has led to an exodus of talents and funding from many nations, especially seeing a bleed over to biathlon where the regular shooting breaks at least give a chance for people to win if they aren't the very best, if the circumstances are right on the day. We have also seen some Norwegian athletes - Hans Christer Holund and Simen Hegstad Krüger are two notables - complain about the Norwegian authorities further tailoring things for their preferred golden goose, either by way of the courses used or by their selection decisions.

For a long time, men's XC had devolved into a straight Norwegian national championships, and the only ones that seemed to be able to break up that hegemony were the Russians, especially Aleksandr Bolshunov, who emerged into the only realistic rival for Klæbo. He won the skiathlon and the 50k in Beijing, and also took the decisive leg in the winning relay. The exclusion of Russia for political reasons has therefore removed arguably the only man who could realistically be a threat to Klæbo on these courses.

The point is really rather that Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is really, really good. This there can be no denying. There is a good chance that, were we seeing competition on a fairer financial footing, on an older-style variety of longer and more challenging courses, and if his main rival was allowed to start, he would still be winning the majority of the events that he is. But these are all factors that have made it easier for Klæbo to become as dominant as he is, and it's why you will still see "yeah, but..." comments all over the place when discussing his achievements. It also doesn't help him that he comes straight off the back of Petter Northug's career, a very brash and divisive personality who had a very, very similar skillset to Klæbo's, and as a lot of sections of the media essentially painted Klæbo as Petter's successor in his early days, some of that divisiveness has rubbed off on people's perception of Klæbo even years down the line when he's long outgrown that comparison.

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo may or may not be the best of all time. Statistically, he's already there. But the number of things that have been stacked in his favour in time, and the undeniably cookie-cutter nature of a lot of the courses on which he's padded his win count, mean that many are reluctant to anoint him over an often overly-romanticised view of the past.

Thank you for a rich and insightful post. I never knew many of these details. But it sounds a lot like the reason I suggested: All the XC events measure the same thing (and most monuments and GT do the same in cycling). We just have an illusion of versatility?

I'm not suggesting that he is not a good/great athlete, not at all.

I also listen to the real science in sport podcast where one XC expert from Norway said that the skiis can decide up to 5% of the finishing time?! Not sure if I understood him correctly, because if the difference between skiis are so big and norway is so much better/having more resources for/willing to win at all cost, then the race itself is kinda muted apart from the Norwegians with the same skiis (?)

 

[nightowl]

Just watching a replay of the women's 50km - what a ridiculous first lap. All I could think of was Mühlegg *** ing off in the 30km in 2002 lol