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Skier's 2nd drug test confirms 1st
Associated Press
MADRID, Spain — Johann Muehlegg, the disgraced cross country skier stripped of a gold medal for doping, learned Tuesday that the "B" sample of his urine test had also proved positive.
The result was released by the International Olympic Committee's medical commission and handed to Spain's state secretary for sport, Juan Antonio Gomez Angulo.
The German-born skier was stripped of his 50K gold medal Sunday — his third gold of the Salt Lake Olympics — after testing positive for darbepoetin, which boosts production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
"It's no surprise because in reality it's not a counter-analysis but rather the same analysis from Feb. 21 done in the same laboratory by the same doctor and with the same system," Gomez Angulo told the Spanish national news agency Efe after receiving the B sample result.
Muehlegg, 31, now faces a possible two-year suspension.
There was no immediate reaction from Muehlegg, who will not be with the Spanish team when it returns Tuesday.
He was scheduled to receive a hero's welcome home this week, but the reception with Spain's King Juan Carlos was called off Monday by the royal palace.
Muehlegg gets to keep his first two gold medals for the 10K and 30K freestyle events, Spain's first cross country skiing golds since 1972.
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February 26, 2002
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