Varis's name goes into the doping book a second time

Possible hurdles in dispensing competition ban

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As the dust settles on biathlete and former cross-country skier Kaisa Varis's second doping offence, a number of questions remain.
      One is quite how the International Biathlon Union will determine her punishment, in the light of this being her first offence under their jurisdiction.
      Another is the financial implications for the Finnish Biathlon Association as sponsors rush to disassociate themselves from a tainted sport.
      And a third question is whether she acted alone in a case that many sports experts felt was "an accident waiting to happen".
     
Varis's fate was sealed on Thursday when the IBU announced the results of her B-sample were positive for erythropoietin, the same performance-enhancing blood booster hormone that was found in her system in 2003 at the Val di Fiemme Nordic Skiing World Championships.
      Already on Wednesday, the biathlon bosses were reporting that the positive from the Finnish skier's A-sample from January 6th was so strong that the examination of the B-sample was really a mere formality.
      And so it proved. Under modern laboratory analysis, a "false positive" for EPO is highly unlikely. The case in 2006 when US sprinter Marion Jones escaped punishment involved a gap of almost three months between the two analyses, but nowadays laboratories test the two samples inside one week to ensure the purity of the samples.
     
The situation with Kaisa Varis is a unique one, and it causes headaches for the IBU in determining the punishment for the offence.
      Usually a second doping violation carries an automatic life ban, but now we have a new ingredient, for the 2003 incident was under the jurisdiction of a different sporting authority, the International Ski Federation.
      The IBU Executive Board will convene in two weeks' time and will also ask to hear from Kaisa Varis.
     
One Finnish expert believes that the IBU will recognise the earlier action by FIS and will impose a life competition ban, but there is a further complication: the current sanction regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA came into effect in March 2003, after the February 2003 bust that brought Varis a two-year competition ban.
      This could bring its own piquant legal flavouring to an already rather complex issue.
     
The two Varis doping cases have a good deal in common. The active agent is the same, the athlete was monitored on both occasions very carefully immediately beforehand by the sports' governing bodies for elevated blood values, and in both cases Kaisa Varis was known to have trained a good deal of the time away from her colleagues in the national team.
      The Finnish Biathlon Association has been at pains to distance itself from the public relations disaster.
      The FBA stressed in their notice of the case that none of the Association's staff have been involved in aiding Varis's use of a banned substance.
     
Even so, this sad business is likely to bring a hefty bill for the FBA, which has never been exactly rolling in money.
      The sport's main sponsor, the metals concern Rautaruukki, announced within minutes of the positive B-sample that it was shutting off the money supply, and the car rentals firm Hertz joined them shortly afterwards.
      The Minister for Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin (Swedish People's Party) wants a full report from the FBA by February 12th, before any decision is made on state assistance (channeled through the Ministry of Education, which is where Wallin's portfolio is located) for the sport.
     
Just as in the past, in Lahti 2001 and Val di Fiemme 2003, the losses will be substantial, and not merely in financial terms: each and every doping case eats into the fabric of the sport concerned and reduces public sympathy and the willingness of volunteers to take part.
      And however hard one tries to assert that this was just an individual case of a desperate athlete who went too far too many times, there will always be a shadow hanging over Finnish sport. People will inevitably ask how she was able to slip through the net of domestic doping controls.
     
Apropos of this last point, many are now already asking whether Kaisa Varis could really have acted completely alone in the matter.
      EPO is not something one can pick up from the local supermarket or pharmacist without a prescription.
      The illegal acquisition of the hormone demands a good network of contacts, and even using it requires expertise.
      If there are professionals in the background, there will be demands for them to be flushed out.
     
In the final analysis, however, the amateurs in the drama will be the ones who end up paying the bill.
      The FBA have an agreement with their athletes that includes a mandatory EUR 45,000 fine for a doping offence, and with claims for compensation for loss of sponsorship revenue also likely from the Association, Kaisa Varis's costs could rise to six figures.
      The Finnish Biathlon Association, for all that most believe it was largely an innocent party in all this, will face an uphill struggle in looking for new sources of corporate sponsorship.
      And on a personal level, other Finnish biathletes will have to face the sideways looks from fellow-competitors.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kaisa Varis B-sample also positive (31.1.2008)
  Biathlete Kaisa Varis suspected of doping violation (24.1.2008)
  Finnish cross-country skier tests positive at Val di Fiemme; STT names athlete as Kaisa Varis (7.3.2003)

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