It was on Monday that the news came that American Chartier had tested positive for EPO and was banned for three years. – I’m crying now, coach Mikal Iden wrote on Instagram. Iden is also part of the coaching staff of the Norwegian national team and the brother of Gustav Iden, who won the WC in Ironman last year. Arild Tveiten, head of sports in the Norwegian Triathlon Federation, tells news that the doping notice led to some meeting activity at the Norwegian federation. – Actually, it does not concern us at all. We are only concerned with protecting Mikal. We are 150,000 percent sure that we do everything we can to protect against doping, but we cannot prevent rumours. – Best to keep your mouth shut At the weekend, he took to Twitter himself and posted four pictures with text explaining how the Norwegian anti-doping work works. – We have explained the Norwegian test system, but if people choose to distrust it and misinterpret the figures, then it is best to shut up, really, he says. On Twitter, there were also many questions, among other things related to Tveiten stating that Antidoping Norway had carried out 353 tests of 78 triathletes in the period from 2018 to 2022. This gives an average of 4.5 tests per athlete, but Tveiten is ready to that the best athletes are tested far more than that. – Now I try not to read too much (of the replies on Twitter), because it just turns out to be nonsense anyway. There are some foreigners who believe that Norwegian triathletes dope. That suspicion has lasted for five or six years and no matter what we do, there will be a few people who point suspicion at us. We have managed to climb from being nothing to quite a leader in the sport. Envy is pretty much the way it is everywhere, he says. – Are you becoming more suspicious? – Yes, a little. You are a bit aware of it, because you know that there is a very small minority. It has come up again on the basis of this case. As I have made clear many times, it is not a person I know and he has not trained regularly with the Norwegian national team. He was with some of the athletes for two days. I get that it comes up, but it’s just as wrong for it. – Was very surprised Olympic winner Kristian Blummenfelt says the case is boring, but tries to see the positive in an athlete who dopes himself being caught for doping. When asked if they notice an increased level of suspicion, he replies: – It is perhaps not so strange that he has had a Norwegian national team coach. Me and Gustav (Iden) are ranked number 1 and 2 in the world and have broken a number of records in the last couple of years. When someone outside the top ten then tests positive for EPO, it is natural that both those who look at the sport from the outside and the athletes look at the ranking and question it. – How did you react to the news about Chartier? – First of all, I was very surprised. He seemed like a rather serious type who went “all in”. I caught my eye on him when he won the PTO US Open and when he was one of the favorites before Hawaii. Blummenfelt is currently in Spain where he is preparing for the European Open. Tveiten says they have discussed the matter a lot and are trying to support the athletes on the national team. – Some don’t care that much, but then there are others who find it unpleasant because they know what they are doing. When this came up, they were at a training camp in the highlands of Spain with many international athletes. Some people find it uncomfortable to come down to the dining hall and feel that people are looking at them. There is not much else to do but continue to work with what we believe in.
ttn-69
– Best to shut up – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
