OSLO, Norway ? Norway is taking the International Olympic Committee to a world sports court to demand that all medals be withdrawn from athletes caught for doping in Salt Lake City.
The Norwegians claim the charter says any athlete caught cheating at a Games should forfeit all medals.
"We will demand that the medals be withdrawn for the two Russians (Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova) and Johann Muehlegg," Geir Woxholth, a lawyer for the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Sports Federation, said Wednesday.
Woxholth said he knew of no other similar case against the IOC, making it a precedent setting process he said could take six months or more. The complaint will be mailed Thursday, he said.
German-born Muehlegg, who skis for Spain, was stripped of his gold medal in the men's 50K Nordic ski race when he tested positive for darbepoetin, which increases oxygen-carrying red blood cells. However, the IOC allowed him to keep two other gold medals from the Salt Lake Games because the positive test came after he won those races.
Cross country skier Lazutina was stripped of the gold in the 30K classical race after testing positive for the same substance. She was allowed to keep silver medals from two other races.
Danilova was disqualified from the 30K event but was allowed to keep a gold and a silver from earlier races.
Kjell O. Kran, president of the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Sports Federation, said the three must be disqualified from the entire 2002 Winter Games.
He said Norway was taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"I think we have a very good starting point," said Kran. "In the IOC charter, it is clear in Article 25 that one loses all medals if found to be cheating."
However, the text of the article is seen to be open to interpretation.
Meanwhile, Lazutina and Danilova filed appeals Thursday with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The International Olympic Committee announced the sanctions on the final day of the Salt Lake Games on Feb. 24.
The arbitration court, an independent body set up to rule on Olympic disputes, said the two athletes and the IOC will be asked to present their cases in writing. Later, the parties will be invited to a hearing.
Norway wrote to the IOC more than a week ago demanding that the medals be revoked. In a brief reply, IOC President Jacques Rogge said that was not the Olympic practice.
Kran insisted that the IOC has a moral duty to fight doping to show it "is on the side of those who do not cheat." Although Norway sees the case as a part of the campaign against doping, the Scandinavian winter sports powerhouse also stands to gain medals from a legal victory.
Norway won 11 gold medals at the Salt Lake Games, its most ever. However, Norwegians Thomas Alsgaard and Frode Estil tied for second place behind Muehlegg in the men's 15K and would have moved up to a shared gold had Muehlegg been disqualified.
In the 50K, Norway's Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset finished fourth and would move up to bronze if Muehlegg were disqualified.
Rogge is to visit Norway later this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1952 Oslo Winter Games.
He said at the end of last month's Olympics that the athletes might technically be allowed to keep the medals but "morally it is a totally different issue."