4 more Olympic skiiers suspended
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-11 15:24

PRAGELATO, Italy (AP) -- Four more cross-country skiers received five-day suspensions Friday for testing positive for high levels of hemoglobin in their blood, bringing the total to 12 in two days.

The four join eight others -- including two Americans and a former gold medalist from Germany -- in being suspended even before the games had officially began.

There is no proof that the athletes did anything wrong: Elevated hemoglobin can be caused by simple dehydration or the body's acclimation to mountain air. But the test result raises the possibility of blood doping with synthetic hemoglobin or transfusions to increase the oxygen in the muscles.

The International Ski Federation said Alen Abramovic of Croatia, Russians Pavel Korosteljev and Nikolai Pankratov, and Robel Teklemariam of Ethiopia had elevated levels of hemoglobin, the red blood cells that can increase endurance.

The tests were conducted by the FIS, which said the suspensions were not disciplinary, but to "protect the health of the athlete."

Athletes who fail blood tests are retested five days later. The eight suspended late Thursday are scheduled for new tests Monday. It was not immediately clear when the latest four failed their tests.

"We are confident that five days is a sufficient time to allow for the blood values to normalize if they are the result of living at a high altitude or dehydration," said Bengt Saltin, chairman of the FIS medical committee. "However, a five-day period is not sufficient to remove the impact of EPO (erythropoietin) or blood transfusion."

The two Americans were 23-year-old Kikkan Randall of Anchorage, Alaska, and Leif Zimmerman, 22, from Bozeman, Mont.

The other skiers suspended were: Sean Crooks of Canada; Sergey Dolidovich of Belarus; Jean Marc Gaillard of France; Aleksandr Lasutkin of Belarus; Natalia Matveeva of Russia; and Evi Sachenbacher of Germany.

Also Friday, Zach Lund, the top slider on the U.S. skeleton team, was banned from the Olympics for taking a common hair-restoration pill that can be used to mask steroids.

Sachenbacher broke down in tears after professing her innocence and explaining to reporters how she always drinks plenty of fluids when competing and training.

She said she needs to drink more water in the coming days to lower her levels before being retested.

"At home, I drink a lot and I never did anything to be guilty. I am the last person to do something like this," said Sachenbacher, the silver medalist in sprint at the last Olympics and currently ranked seventh in the overall World Cup standings.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the suspensions "were not doping tests."

"They will have to wait five more days until their blood parameters go down," Rogge said.

Nobody seems too concerned about it, with various officials using the word "routine" to describe the action taken by the International Ski Federation. Hemoglobin levels can rise from dehydration or changes the body goes through adjusting to altitude. The cross-country venue is at about 5,013 feet in the Italian Alps.

"It's a health and safety issue, and that's why it's there," U.S. Ski Team spokesman Tom Kelly said Friday morning.

Kelly said team officials don't believe Randall or Zimmerman did anything wrong. He said neither will miss their events because they weren't scheduled to ski Sunday in the men's and women's pursuit.

"I get tested pretty regularly, especially the last few years with the U.S. Ski Team's sport science department," said Zimmerman, competing in his first Olympics. "We have a pretty good passport on my blood levels and I'm routinely around 17 (maximum level) as I've spent almost my entire life living and training at altitude. I also have had a head cold for the past week and that definitely affected my hydration, along with the altitude. Hopefully this won't affect any of my plans at the Olympics."

Randall is scheduled to race Tuesday, while Zimmerman may be in either the men's sprint on Feb. 22 or the 50-kilometer race on Feb. 26.

Randall, a sprint specialist who goes by the nickname "Kikkanimal," is competing in her second Olympics. Her aunt, Betsy Haines, competed in the 1980 Olympics in cross-country and her uncle, Chris, was on the 1976 team.

"I knew that with all the running around we did getting here and into the village earlier this week, that not getting fluid was a problem for me," Randall said.

The failed tests do raise concern about whether any of these athletes were blood doping with synthetic hemoglobin or transfusions to increase the oxygen in the muscles.

The IOC plans to administer close to 1,200 drug tests during the Turin Olympics. The FIS sampled 224 athletes over two days this week.

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