Russia's Relay Disaster
By Erik Stange

February 21, 2002

Today was an interesting day. As most readers undoubtedly have learned, both Russia and the Ukraine did not start teams in the women's relay this morning. This morning with about an hour and a half before the start, I had a brief exchange with Yury Charkovsky--the Russian cross-country program director. He was standing outside the hemoglobin test trailer, and explained to me that Larissa Lazutina had been selected for testing. Approximately a half hour later there seemed to be a large contingent of Russian coaches and team officials collecting outside of the team's wax trailer, but the Russian women were hands-down favorites to win the gold today. It seemed like it would be a logical occasion for many of the team's higher-ups to be on hand for the day of national glory.

As I stood on the side of the trail just minutes before the start, a Finnish wax technician I had met in Austria this fall skied up to me. He reported that it looked like the Russians were out of the relay, and his radio had just said that the Ukraine was out as well. The bombshell news brought the athlete's compound alive with guesses and speculation. I told him about Lazutina's morning tests, and we concluded that it must have something to do with that. With the Russian team out of contention, the door was open for another team to win and the Germans took advantage of the opportunity to win the Olympic gold. The German victory marked the first time since 1984 that a Russian or Soviet women's team has not won the Olympic relay.

After the race I needed to go to the Russian trailer to collect money for waxes the team had bought from us earlier in the week. Yury invited me in and had me take a seat while he located the cash to pay the bill. I sat next to a very somber Nina Gavriljuk, who said nothing as she absently paged through a team manual. At that moment I did feel sorry for her. There have been rumors about the team's practices circling for years, but Gavriljuk has not once tested positive for any illegal substances. Today she was not allowed to race due to circumstances totally beyond her control.

The fallout of the morning's decisions will become clearer in the days to come. It is important to remember that Lazutina's hemoglobin test does not automatically mean that she was caught for doping. A urine test is being analyzed and the results will be available within a day or two. The Russian team is quite upset with the day's events and they have threatened to withdraw the entire delegation from the remainder of the Olympics. I hope cooler heads will prevail and these games will be spared the black eye this action would create.