Coleraine, MN, December 29. — Hilary McNamee (Fort Fairfield, ME) and Meagan Toussaint (Madawaska, ME) won for the second day in a row with victories in the Pursuit Format competitions today at the Youth/Junior World Championship Team Trials.
The two women form the Maine Winter Sports Center won the Youth and Junior categories. They were the only repeat winners today, as both Leif Nordgren (Marine-on–St. Croix, MN) in the Youth Men and Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) in the Junior Men were edged out of first place by small margins.
With their victories today, McNamee and Toussaint, along with Mark Johnson (Grand …read more

25 April 2007 – The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today unanimously decided to declare permanently ineligible six athletes from the Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiing teams who competed at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games (see full details below). This decision excludes them from taking part in any future Olympic Games in any accredited capacity – be that as an athlete, coach, official, etc.
The EB approved the recommendations of the Disciplinary Commission (DC) set up by the IOC in February 2006 and composed of Dr Thomas Bach (chairman), Denis Oswald and Sergey Bubka.
IOC sets up …read more

CHAMONIX 1924
January 25, 1924
It was held in France, 83 years ago!
But, of course, they didn’t know what it was while it was going on. The IOC just named it as such afterwards. Originally, the competition was called International Sports Week 1924.
Trivia: First event to be decided on was the men’s 500m speed skating where Charles Jewtraw (US) won the first gold.
There were 258 athletes (11 women, 247 men) of 16 nations competed in 16 events of 6 sports (Biathlon, Bobsleigh, Curling, Ice Hockey, Skating and Skiing).
Source: www.olympic.org

Follow up #4 to a previous post ..

The president of the Austrian ski federation revealed that two athletes “may have used illegal methods” at the Torino Olympic Winter Games.
Federation president Peter Schroecksnadel told reporters Tuesday that Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottman, both of whom fled Italy when the team’s Olympic residences were raided by local police last Sunday evening, confessed to sports director Markus Gandler.
Schroecksnadel did not elaborate, noting only that the skiers have been kicked off the national team and that a commission is being set up to investigate.
“Team Austria is a small group and …read more

Another Follow up ==> to my second post HERE …

Last Updated: Sun Feb 19 19:58:21 EST 2006
CBC Sports
Walter Mayer, the man whose appearance at the Torino Winter Olympic Games set off a raid by Italian police on the Austrian nordic ski team, has been taken into custody by Italian police after he allegedly took them on a chase through the mountains that ended with a crash into a police barrier.
Italian police took Mayer into protective custody after he allegedly tried to run a one-car road block while heading for the Austrian border.
Police earlier in the evening …read more

Follow up => to my previous post … Blame the police?
Italian law enforcement authorities raided the Olympic residences of Austria’s biathlon and cross-country teams early Sunday, but found no evidence of doping. It marked the first anti-doping police raid on athletes in Olympic history.
…….”They checked every drink, every food, and they took a lot of stuff with them,” Austrian spokesman Eric Wagner claimed. “They came around 9 and stayed until 12 and then took the athletes away to be tested.” Austria finished dead last in Sunday’s 4×10-kilometre relay. “They absolutely ruined the race,” Austrian skier Martin …read more

According to the news …
Italian law enforcement authorities raided the residences of some staff members of the Austrian biathlon and cross-country teams early Sunday morning, apparently searching for banned substances, said two separate news reports.
The International Olympic Committee also confirmed it has conducted out-of-competition doping tests on “a number of Austrian cross-country and biathlon athletes,” according to Reuters and Associated Press.
[..more..]

France’s Defrasne finishes first! Now say that five times quickly.
Vincent Defrasne’s chance of even stepping onto the podium seemed over when he stumbled on top of a hill after an ardous climb.
But the tenacious Frenchman quickly recovered, and made a mad dash to overtake Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen less than a hundred meters before the finish line. Talk about a nail-biter.

Defrasne sprinting after the leader (Source: NBC)

Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva, the silver medallist in Monday’s 15-kilometre race, tested positive for a banned substance at the Torino Olympics.
[..more..]

Olga was scheduled to race in today’s Ladies Biathlon 7.5 km Sprint race … Here are the final results for that
Rank / NOC / Result / Behind
1 – FRA – Florence Baverel-Robert (22:31.4)
2 – SWE – Anna Carin (22:33.8 / +2.4)
3 – UKR – Lilia Efremova (22:38.0 / +6.6)
Results of Canadian Athletes
62 – CAN – Zina Kocher (26:11.1 / +3:39.7)
66 – CAN – Sandra Keith (26:20.7) / +3:49.7)
73 – CAN – Martine Albert (27:04.4 / +4:33.0)
76 – CAN …read more

Sven Fischer of Germany edged out two-time defending Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen to take the Gold at the Biathlon event.
Fischer finished the 10km sprint in 26 minutes 11.6 seconds. His closest rival, Silver Medalist Halvard Hanevold of Norway, was 8.2 seconds behind.

Fischer elevated (Source: International Olympic Committee)