May 9, 2002
2:38 PM   Subscribe

Canadian cross-country skier Beckie Scott, who won a bronze medal in the 5-km pursuit at the 2002 Winter Olympics, may have that bronze medal upgraded to silver. The current silver medallist, Larissa Lazutina, who later tested positive for darbopoetin after the 30-km classic and was stripped of her gold medal in that event, also tested positive for darbopoetin in a test administered in December 2001, which would nullify all of Lazutina's results since then.
posted by mcwetboy (6 comments total)
 
Boy. What a dope.
posted by dhartung at 3:22 PM on May 9, 2002


Cheating doesn't pay. Unless of course you are talking about the results of the day before.

Is it just me or are the Olympics actually a celebration of the screwing over of atheletes by bureaucrats who specialize in the 50 yard buck pass?

Maybe they should adopt the figure skating approach and let them all have golds.
posted by srboisvert at 3:53 PM on May 9, 2002


MTV should start OlympicsX where everyone can legally use substances and any other means to win. Then short track speed skating would be *really* fun - think of Ono packing heat, shooting the pesky guy in front of him...
posted by stormy at 4:05 PM on May 9, 2002


Some background: Scott was, if I remember correctly, the first North American to win a medal in a Nordic (i.e. x-c ski) event, and has been a vocal critic of doping in sport. During the Games, she was told by no less a personage than IOC bigwig (and fellow Canajun) Dick Pound to put up or shut up about her allegations of doping during her event. The subsequent positive tests of Danilova and Lazutina (and Muhlegg on the men's side) certainly seem to vindicate her position. This is a single episode of a larger story about endemic doping in competitive cross-country skiing. There was lots of news about this during Salt Lake; this is a coda that deserves notice.
posted by mcwetboy at 5:58 PM on May 9, 2002


As Yogi would say, its not over until all the dopers have gone to pee.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:01 PM on May 9, 2002


They should hold some sort of "drug-free" amateur competition for athletes from around the world. Oh, wait a minute...
posted by mecran01 at 5:09 AM on May 11, 2002


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