----- Original Message -----
From: "Irene Postma" <speedskating@...>
To: "Skate" <Speed_skating@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Skate] Re: Claudia Pechstein suspended 2 years for doping...


What I recall:

There was a flu that had affected e.g. Daniela Anschütz. Then Claudia
started and skated the first day, but it was not as good as expected!
(with doping you would expect she would be better).
That evening I saw her mother in the hall of the hotel, who told me that
Claudia had a fever and that it looked like she was not going to start the
next day.

If someone has a heavy flu, could/would that not result in abnormal blood
values?

* No, that possibility was ruled out. See point 33 in the full report. The
values that were found in Pechstein's blood had increased so much that the
only possible alternative for blood doping was a congenital blood disorder.
Pechstein was offered to have a medical examination to prove that she had a
congenital blood disorder and she was allowed to skate before ending that
examination. However, she refused that offer. Although the DESG-reaction
says something different (see www.desg.de)

In that case it's logical that neither Pechstein nor Mueller knew...
So EITHER Pechstein AND some medical person and possibly coach are guilty
Or the blood problem was caused by her having a flu.

* The ISU tests with a machine and knows the outcomes very soon. I think
they give the results quite soon to the skaters. Like: everything OK. As
from former doping cases, it is known suspected results are communicated
quite soon, mostly with a request to withdraw. But I don't know to whom? the
skater? the coach? the federation official? Did Pechstein know the result of
that Friday-sample before she started on Saturday? Taking the risk that
another blood sample would be taken with showed the same pattern ? And of
course, she was very upset when she found out later. It is not strange she
felt empty in the weeks after and decided not to go America. Her definite
decision not to start was on March, 5, the day that the official complaint
arrived at the DESG.

The DESG-defence seems to concentrate on juridical matters and to state that
she was never positive in the past (of course not; that is why these
Hamar-values were so strange).

It would be wiser for Pechstein to be transparant. What has she been doing
in that week before the WCh allround? Between the World Cup in Erfurt and
the WCh in Hamar (where she is living?). What happened after that first
blood sample? Who knew when? If someone else is to blame, nail him down.
Otherwise, she will be the only one who suffers.

The ISU is very transparant in its operating by putting the whole verdict on
the web. Which gives it a lot of credibility IMO. It would benefit Pechstein
if she put her version in public, with which she could take away the
suspicion that something is still hidden. That is what is happening in
cycling nowadays and that is why the mess is still not cleaned there.

Marcel