Rap for skier Schoenfelder

By Anna Thompson
Winter sports editor

Schoenfelder beat Finland's Kalle Palander to the slalom title

World Cup slalom champion Rainer Schoenfelder has received a warning after he failed a drugs test.

Schoenfelder tested positive for the stimulant Etilephrine on 27 March at the Austrian slalom championships.

The 26-year-old said he had taken Influbene tablets for flu and did not realise they contained a banned drug.

The Austrian Ski Federation accepted his plea in contrast to Scot Alain Baxter, who was stripped of Olympic bronze after using a nasal inhaler.

Schoenfelder has been disqualified from the Austrian Championship race for failing the test but his World Cup results have not been affected.

The doping code was changed in the light of Baxter's case in 2000.

Scottish skier Baxter received the minimum penalty possible at the time for a doping offence, which was a three-month ban.

Sarah Lewis, secretary-general of the International Ski Federation, told the BBC Sport website: "We haven't been officially informed by the Austrian Ski Federation as to the decision regarding Schoenfelder.

"But the current drugs code does state that if a drug is ingested by accident through medical use, as in Schoenfelder's case, then the penalty ranges from a warning to a 12-month ban.

"The World Anti-doping Agency or FIS could appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if we felt the penalty given was outside the perameters.

"But the Austrian Ski Federation has done nothing wrong in this case."