Good News/Bad News

The bad news out of the cross-country ski world is that four athletes, including the formerly-rising Russian star Sergey Shiriaev, have received bans after getting caught doping last season. Shiriaev can't compete again until March 2009. The other three dopers were all from Kazakhstan, which raises some serious questions about what's been going on in that country, where budget problems, not to mention political strife, have diminished the quality of the skiers' results since their heyday immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

More positively, the ageless Italian racer Silvio Fauner has been named the head coach of that country's national team. Fauner had an illustrious career as a skier, the climax of which was outsprinting Bjorn Daehlie to win the 4x10km relay at the Lillehammer Olympic Games in 1994 - a stunning defeat for the host in the games' marquee event, and the signal that Italy had emerged into the top tier of ski powers. (And after "retiring," he raced ski marathons, amassing almost twenty top-10 finishes over the last five years.) Fauner replaces another member of the '94 relay team, Marco Albarello, who had recently been criticized by the skiers. Fauner can only hope to improve on Italy's mediocre performances last season. The Italian team finished sixth in the Nations' Cup standings (6100 points behind winner Norway and 1150 points behind fifth-placed Sweden); Italian racers rarely made the podium during the regular World Cup (one win for male sprinter Renato Pasini; a sprint win and a distance bronze for female racer Arianna Follis), and won only a gold and two bronzes at the World Championships.