The International Edition of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports that Kari-Pekka Kyrö, the former head coach of the Finnish cross-country skiing team, claims that in terms of Olympic sports, the FSA has been the largest distributor of doping substances in Finland. Last month, FasterSkier reported that Kyrö was talking to the Office of The Prosecutor General.
Writes Helsingin Sanomat –
The murky recent past of Finnish cross-country skiing is doggedly refusing to go away. Kari-Pekka Kyrö, the former head coach of the Finnish cross-country skiing team, claims that in terms of Olympic sports, the FSA has been the largest distributor of doping substances in Finland. He charges that doping was widespread in Finnish skiing in the 1990s.
Moreover, Kyrö also asserts that Olympic champion Marjo Matikainen, now a National Coalition Party MP, would have stooped to using banned substances in order to achieve success and reputation.
Kyrö claims further that Pekka Vähäsöyrinki, the then head of cross-country skiing at the FSA, also manoeuvred him into the doping scene, by asking him to keep some performance enhancing drugs, namely growth hormone and Russian erythropoietin, at his home in 1998.
State Prosecutor Pekka Koponen reports that the interviews with Kyrö in May were the basis for re-investigating the association's role in doping in the 1990s.
Read the full article:
Former cross-country skiing coach accuses Finnish Ski Association of orchestrating doping
In related doping news, Finnish Biathlete Kaisa Varis, who was caught doping and banned for two years from Cross-Country skiing after the 2003 World Championships in Lahti, was given a lifetime ban by the International Biathlon Union after testing positive at a race this winter. FasterSkier reported on the positive test, but did not cover the subsequent ruling. What is notable is that Varis was banned for life for a second offense, even though her first offense technically came in a different sport
Read the Helsingin Sanomat article from February on Varis' suspension.
Kaisa Varis given lifetime ban by International Biathlon Union
Source: Helsingin Sanomat
