Drug that got Lund banned from Turin will be legal

The drug that got American skeleton racer Zach Lund barred from the Turin Olympics hours before the opening ceremony is being removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list.

Lund tested positive for finasteride, an ingredient in a popular hair-restoration pill that also was believed to be capable of masking steroid usage. It was prohibited in 2005, but after further study showed athletes gain no tangible advantage from the drug, it will be removed from WADA's banned list on Jan. 1.

Lund served a one-year suspension and could not race in Turin, where he would have been a gold-medal favorite.

"When it happened, I said they would make this legal in a year or two, because that's what WADA does," Lund said in Lake Placid, where he's training for the upcoming World Cup season. "They put stuff on the banned list without any scientific proof saying why. They're not held accountable. It's not like I'm getting a 'Sorry we took the Olympics away from you. Sorry we almost ruined your career.'"

WADA made the decision to remove finasteride and other alpha-reductase inhibitors late last month, calling the review "an important responsibility ... in the harmonization of the global fight against doping in sport."

"These substances have been rendered ineffective as masking agents of steroids," WADA said in a statement announcing the change.

Lund — who said he did not know the product was newly added to the banned list before the 2005 season — was the World Cup leader and Olympic favorite before he tested positive for finasteride in November of that year.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigated and decided to give Lund a public warning, but WADA pressed for a two-year ban. Ultimately, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Lund was not a drug cheat, but still ordered him sidelined until November 2006.

"Unfortunately for Zach, this decision comes two years too late," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "As we argued in 2006, he never should have been prohibited from competing in the Torino Games."

Lund, who no longer uses the hair-restoration product and shaves his head, said he was told of the change in WADA policy last week.

"I was sitting on my couch when I got the call," Lund said, "and I started laughing so hard that I cried."

Lund is not the only athlete who suffered consequences for using finasteride.

Brazilian soccer star Romario and hockey goalie Jose Theodore both tested positive for the drug in recent years. Also, a German wheelchair basketball player was banned from the Paralympics last month after testing positive, and an Israeli sailor tested positive this summer, but was allowed to enter the Beijing Games nonetheless.

IOC exec: cycling's Olympic future in limbo

The future of men's road cycling in the Olympics could be threatened unless the sport cleans up its doping record.

Thomas Bach, vice president of the International Olympic Committee, said Tuesday the latest Tour de France doping revelations have further damaged the sport's credibility and called its Olympic status into question.

If the entire sport doesn't pull together to improve the situation, "then you have to consider giving men's road cycling a pause" from Olympic participation, Bach told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The head of world cycling called Bach's suggestion "completely unacceptable" and said the sport was weeding out the drug cheats.

Anti-doping and cycling officials said Monday that Leonardo Piepoli of Italy and Stefan Schumacher of Germany had tested positive during this year's Tour de France for CERA, an advanced version of the blood booster EPO. Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco previously admitted to CERA use.

"This is a hard blow for the credibility of men's road cycling," Bach said. "Obviously, the riders have not changed their mentality. They had a chance to do so, but they did not and this makes it even worse."

He said the international cycling union, or UCI, had begun effective anti-doping programs but blamed the sport's riders, race organizers, team owners and sponsors.

"I hope that now these stakeholders realize that they have to join this program and work seamlessly together," said Bach, a German lawyer. "They have to react. The credibility of men's road race cycling is at stake."

Bach said the sport should be given more time and did not face any immediate sanctions.

"I am confident that UCI will react and will call upon the other stakeholders to join and to work hand in hand," he said. "They have made an effort, but it's not enough if you have no real collaboration and cooperation. The UCI has to be the leader."

UCI president Pat McQuaid reacted strongly to Bach's comments.

"It is completely unac! ceptable for Thomas Bach to be saying this," he told the AP. "I don't like talking about other sports, but there are other sports with persistent problems. Instead of firing guns at cycling he should fire guns equally at them as well."

McQuaid said Bach may have been driven by the spate of doping scandals involving German riders.

"These athletes are killing cycling in Germany and damaging it around the rest of the world," he said. "That doesn't mean the whole sport should suffer."

McQuaid insisted the majority of cyclists are clean.

"Why should they be threatened because of a few bad apples?" he said. "We are weeding out the bad apples, make no mistake about it. No one can say the UCI and cycling authorities are not doing their utmost to find cheats and get them out of the sport.

"This is a low point, there is no doubt about it," McQuaid added. "Our resolve is to completely get rid of the cheats from cycling."

The French Anti-Doping Agency has been retesting blood samples from the Tour in a bid to catch more cyclists they suspect may have used CERA. The original urine tests had raised suspicions but proved inconclusive.

Bach said IOC medical experts should now consider resting samples from the Beijing Olympics to check for the same.

"They have to check what was the substance used in the Tour de France, and what was the method being applied to detect it," he said. "They then have to compare it with the testing in Beijing and decide whether it makes sense to open (the samples) now."

2010 Olympic ticket sales begin Friday

Ticket for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics go on sale Friday and organizers promise purchasers won't have to race to get a seat.

Instead, they will be available for five weeks through an online process designed to thwart scalpers trying to snap up tickets to the best events.

"There are people that are experts at getting to the front of the line and they make a living doing that," Caley Denton, vice president of ticketing for the Vancouver organizing committee for the 2010 Olympics, said Thursday.

"We have a built-in reason why that's not important. It's not a race."

The organizing committee will accept applications for tickets between Friday and Nov. 7, submitted either online at vancouver2010.com or through a paper application available by phone.

There won't be any decision on who gets which tickets until after the deadline for applications.

"It's about taking your time and planning your experience," Denton said of the five-week process.

If there is more demand for an event than there are seats, a lottery will be held.

People who apply for tickets will be notified in late November or early December if their application is successful.

Around 1.6 million tickets will be available to the public, representing 70 percent of the overall tickets being sold, with prices ranging from $25 for some Nordic events, to $1,100 for the opening ceremonies.

That doesn't include service charges, taxes or delivery fees, which could bump the cost of an individual ticket up as much as $28.

The remaining 30 percent of the tickets have been sold to the so-called Olympic family — sponsors, Olympic committees and other partners of the Games.