MP Marjo Matikainen-Kallström calls 1988 doping claims clear defamation of character

Marjo Matikainen-Kallström

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Member of Parliament and former top cross-country skier and Olympic gold medallist Marjo Matikainen-Kallström vehemently denied on Tuesday the claims made in the television channel Nelonen’s news programme Nelosen Uutiset, according to which a bottle of EPO hormone would have been seen on her table during a national ski team training camp in November 1988.
     
”I have no idea what this is all about. I have no knowledge of this and nothing to do with the whole thing. As I have nothing to hide, I can only wonder of the motives”, National Coalition Party MP Matikainen-Kallström told Helsingin Sanomat, and she emphasised that she has never had anything to do with forbidden substances.
      According to Nelosen Uutiset, the bottle was seen on Matikainen’s table in the Lapland municipality of Sodankylä, where the national team was on a training camp a month before the 1989 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti. On the label on the side of a small glass bottle it said erythropoietin, which refers to EPO hormone.
      EPO increases the production of red blood cells, which in turn improves an athlete’s aerobic capacity and endurance. In 1988 EPO was already on the list of banned substances in sports.
      In Matikainen-Kallström’s opinion “the news item in question is borderline funny”.
      “This is clear defamation of character. I have no idea of what brought this on and what the motives behind it might be”, the MP continued.
     
Nelosen Uutiset has no proof that the bottle had definitely belonged to Matikainen, and the TV channel does not claim that Matikainen would have used forbidden substances.
      A member of the national team of the time had given an sworn affidavit of what he or she saw. A similar affidavit has also been given another member of the team, to whom the eyewitness had immediately told what he or she saw on Matikainen’s table.
      “I wonder in which court such affidavits have been given”, said an astonished Matikainen-Kallström.
     
During her highly successful career Matikainen won Olympic gold in Calgary in 1988, and World Championship gold in Oberstdorf in 1987 and Lahti in 1989.
      She was first elected to Parliament in 2004, after having spent eight years as a MEP at the European Parliament.
      Antti Leppävuori, who was the director of cross-country at the Finnish Ski Association in 1988, only heard of the claims when contacted by Helsingin Sanomat last night.
      “I cannot begin to perceive what this is all about”, he says simply.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kaisa Varis given lifetime ban by International Biathlon Union (12.2.2008)

Links:
  Erythropoietin, EPO (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat