2-time Olympic champion Northug busted for cocaine, speeding

Oslo - Preliminary charges are one step short of formal charges

 Two-time Olympic cross-country skiing champion Petter Northug has admitted to possessing cocaine, speeding and driving under the influence.

 The Norwegian great, who won two gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and is a 13-time world champion, retired from the sport in 2018.

 "I made a big mistake," the 34-year-old Northug wrote on Facebook. "I was driving way too fast and was also taken to the emergency room for blood test. In addition, the police found a smaller amount of drugs at my house. It's about cocaine."

 After being stopped for speeding, police searched his home and found the cocaine.

 On Monday, prosecutor Silje Haugerstuen Bergsholm told Norwegian news agency NTB that Northug is facing preliminary charges for speeding for driving 168 kph in a 110 kph zone, driving while under the influence of a substance and possession of narcotics.

 Preliminary charges are one step short of formal charges. No date for a trial was immediately set.
 "I am despair and afraid of what the future will bring, and incredibly sorry for all those who I have now disappointed, again. I know it will now be a criminal case. Then I will take responsibility for what I have done," Northug wrote Friday, a day after the offences.

 In 2014, Northug crashed his car in Norway while driving under the influence of alcohol. He fled the scene and later apologised for the accident in which a male passenger broke his collar bone.