Sapporo: FIS set for anti-doping at worlds

The International Ski Federation will institute a stringent anti-doping program at the Nordic World Ski Championships starting Thursday.
SAPPORO, Japan — The International Ski Federation will institute a stringent anti-doping program at the Nordic World Ski Championships starting Thursday.
    The 2007 championships will involve one of the largest anti-doping programs of any major international sports event outside of the Olympic Winter Games, the FIS said in a statement.
    “FIS will always take a tough stance in the fight against doping,” FIS President Gian Franco Kasper said.
    The championships opens with the men’s and women’s cross-country sprint events.
    FIS said that all cross-country and nordic combined competitors would be subject to pre-competition blood tests. More than 100 will be conducted after each event.
    Nordic skiing has had numerous high-profile doping incidents over the years.
    At the Torino Olympics last year, several cross-country skiers served suspensions for high hemoglobin levels.
    Even though they were later cleared to compete at the Olympics, the test results raised the possibility of blood doping with synthetic hemoglobin or transfusions.
    Finland’s Virpi Kuitunen, who leads this year’s World Cup standings with 1,197 points and is one of the favorites here, was disqualified at the 2001 nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, when she tested positive for a banned blood plasma expander.
    Kuitunen served a two-year suspension and was forced to give up the silver medal she won that year in the 4×5-kilometer event.
    A total of 18 world titles are up for grabs in cross-country skiing, nordic combined and ski-jumping, with 495 athletes from 49 countries competing until March 4.
    Local organizers and FIS officials are hoping to boost nordic skiing with the first worlds held in Asia.

— The Associated Press