[Archive 2011-07-08] Finnish Olympic champion skier Mika Myllylä found dead

Historical archive — originally published 2011-07-08. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Finnish cross-country skier Mika Myllylä, a six-time Olympic medalist, including one gold, has been found dead. He was 41. Police said he was alone at his apartment in Kokkola and no crime is suspected. His cause of death remains unclear.

Born 1969 in Oulu, Myllylä won Olympic silver at the 50km cross-country race in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994, and gold at the 30km cross-country race in Nagano, Japan in 1998. These two Games netted him four bronze medals. The 1999 World Championship in Austria saw him win three gold medals and one silver. This and other World Championships saw him gain a total of nine World Championship medals.

It was at the 2001 World Championships in his native Finland that things went wrong for Myllylä. A Finnish Ski Association bag was accidentally left at a petrol station close to Helsinki's International Airport; it was handed in to police, who discovered needles, infusion bags and a prescription for banned drug Hemohes (HES) signed off by a team doctor.

HES had been banned the previous year by the International Olympic Committee because it reduced hemoglobin concentration and oxygen-carrying red blood cell counts; this allowed it to mask the presence of banned drug erythropoietin (EPO), which raises red blood cell production. Last year Myllylä provided a court with a sworn statement confirming he had used EPO in the decade preceding the controversy.

Myllylä and five other Finnish skiers tested positive for HES in what became a national scandal; the Finnish Ski Association's president, and the team's doctors and coaches left or were sacked. Myllylä was handed a two-year sporting ban, after which he returned to competitive skiing; although he twice won the national championships, he gave up in 2005.

Since then his personal life has been difficult. Drink-driving convictions came in 2008 and 2010 as Myllylä fought alcoholism, and he was thrice convicted of assault. He and his wife Suvi were divorced in 2007.

Piirainen himself was caught up in the doping scandal after a news story into Finnish doping led to a libel case. Piirainen's statements in court led to him facing a fraud trial, but he was cleared.

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Text adapted from Finnish Olympic champion skier Mika Myllylä found dead by Wikinews contributors under CC BY 2.5. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. Contributor history.