Bobsled captain wins reprieve - and ticket to Olympics

RIGA - The International Bobsled Federation has slapped a three-month suspension on Latvian bobsled captain Sandis Prusis that will keep him out of world cup competitions. But because the ban is retroactive to Nov. 9, it makes him eligible to compete in the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

Prusis, 37, was suspended after testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone while training in the United States in November. The federation's original ruling would have kept Prusis out of the Olympics, but the ruling was amended after an appeal from both Prusis and the Latvian Bobsled Federation.

"It feels nice to know I will be competing," said Prusis.

The appeal placed the blame for the positive test results on dietary supplements Prusis unwittingly took.

The federation agreed. "There was compelling evidence that while the test was positive it was through no fault of the athlete," said its general secretary Ermanno Gardello.

Secretary General of the Latvian Olympic Committee Aldons Vrublevskis praised the ruling, saying, "If the International Bobsled Federation made the decision then it must be right."

Raimonds Dombrovskis, the coach of the Latvian team, said that after Prusis tested positive for nandrolone, "team officials suspected one of the many supplements the athletes were taking as being the reason for the positive drug test."

After all the dietary supplements were tested, though, it turned out that "others also tested positive for the banned substance as well."

Dombrovskis didn't think it fair to blame one person for this. "It's nobody's fault," he said. "We are a country of 1.2 million people. We don't have the means to test every supplement."

Other officials do not feel the same way, however. The bobsled team's doctor, Romans Osapinko, was removed from his post after tests determined that the dietary supplements he supplied contained the banned substance.

This seemed unfair to Dombrovskis. "I think it's wrong to fire him. People want to place the blame somewhere, and they are picking on the one guy who can't fight back. It's not like we have that many doctors in Latvia who are qualified to do the job."

Prusis, who placed fourth in last year's bobsled world championship, will now be eligible to take part in the Olympic bobsled competition, which doesn't start until the second week of the games, on Feb. 16.

But Prusis does not escape punishment altogether. All the points he accumulated during world cup competitions in Germany, Austria, and the United States since Nov. 9 have been forfeited, which means he has no chance of winning the world cup this year.

As a further punishment, he may have to compete in the last group of competitors in the four-man competition at the Olympics. This would make it difficult for his team to get a good result, because the later groups have to race when the ice tends to be softer and slower than at the start of competitions due to the damage made by the earlier sleds.

If a starting position in the final group is not part of Prusis' punishment, however, he could get a place in the first group of 10 sleds if "Latvia II," the sled still competing in world cup competitions, can finish six places ahead of the Canadians this weekend. In bobsledding, all of a country's points are pooled, and the coaches decide which sled will start in the best starting position.

Prusis' best chances of winning a medal may be in the two-man competition, where he is almost assured a spot in the second group of racers.

Although he believes that predicting Latvia's results is a risky business, Vrublevskis said, "A top-six finish would be a great result for the Latvian team."