Eight suspended

The International Ski Federation (FIS) said the skiers had been banned from competing after tests showed they had an abnormally high red blood cell count.

The suspensions started on Thursday and run until Monday when the eight will be tested again. If the levels remain high they face a further five-day ban.

The cross-country programme opens on Sunday with two races followed by two more on Tuesday.

The FIS said on Friday, the opening day of the Games, that among the athletes was German Evi Sachenbacher Stehle, 25, who won a gold medal in the women's relay and a silver in the women's sprint in Salt Lake City.

"My first thought was, 'Shit! A five-day suspension and I will miss my most important race on Sunday,'" Sachenbacher Stehle told reporters before breaking down in tears at a news conference at Pragelato, venue for the cross-country races.

German team doctors also reacted angrily, saying she produced higher levels naturally.

German cross-country team captain Jochen Behle said he was trying to rally the support of other countries to have the suspensions overturned.

He also hit out at the FIS, saying: "They do whatever they want. It's disgraceful. We got the news at around nine o'clock this morning, after it had already been reported by German media."

The other athletes named by the FIS are Sean Crooks (Canada), Sergey Dalidovich (Belarus), Jean Marc Gaillard (France), Alexsandr Latzukin (Belarus), Natalia Matveeva (Russia), Kikkan Randall (U.S.) and Leif Zimmermann (U.S.).

"This is not a sanction but a health measure," FIS secretary general Sarah Lewis told Reuters.

"When haemoglobin is too high, there is a risk the blood will be too thick and there could be a clot and obviously that could be a danger."

She added: "Haemoglobin levels can be affected by altitude training or the use of agents to boost haemoglobin."

IOC president Jacques Rogge added in a press conference: "The health of the athletes has to be protected - the reason for the tests is to protect the health of the athletes.

"These health tests are not doping tests."

A German ski federation doctor said Sachenbacher Stehle had a naturally higher count of red blood cells.

"We can't accept that athletes are being banned due to slightly higher blood cell counts, using the excuse of health concerns," Ernest Jakob told reporters in Sestriere.

"Here we have a case of health concerns being used to justify these blood tests, while the real aim is to avoid blood doping."

But Chris Rudge, secretary general of the Canadian Olympic Committee, told Reuters: "This is not a drug issue, this is an issue of the safety and health of the athlete."

Jakob recommended Sachenbacher Stehle drink lots of water to bring down her levels, although the athlete herself said she was already doing that.

"I drink a lot every time I go into competition and I've never taken anything illegal," she said. "I think I'm the last person who would do anything wrong. I'm so disappointed."

German cross-country team doctor Ullrich Schneider described Sachenbacher Stehle as sad and crushed.

"Athletes prepare for four years for this event and then they have to take part in this kind of lottery," he said.

Sachenbacher Stehle, who won gold and silver at the 2003 world championships in Val di Fiemme, had been due to race in the women's 15-km pursuit on Sunday.

Providing she passes Monday's second test, she will still be able to compete in the women's team sprint on Tuesday.

A French Nordic skiing team chief said France's Gaillard, a relay substitute, also had produced high levels naturally.

"In the past, we have sent his file to WADA," said Jean Pierre Burdet. "We have sent it again and are awaiting an answer."

The men's 30-km pursuit is also on Sunday.

In an apparently separate case, The IOC on Friday rejected claims by an Italian Health Ministry official who said several Winter Olympics athletes had tested positive for doping in pre-Games drugs checks. "This information is incorrect," IOC communications director Giselle Davies told Reuters.

Giovanni Zotta, who is an Italian representative on the International Olympic Committee's anti-doping commission, had earlier told Reuters that preliminary tests had found the banned substance Erythropoietin (EPO) in several athletes.

"So far there have been cases of EPO haematocrit in several athletes but it must be confirmed," Zotta said, speaking on the day the Games were to open. He did not provide the names of any athletes or numbers involved.

EPO boosts the number of red blood cells which carry oxygen and improves stamina.

But in a press conference on Friday, IOC president Jacques Rogge re-asserted the committee's stance on the issue.

"This is absolutely wrong based on a misunderstanding of this gentleman. I can state now there is no positive doping case in Torino."