Editing Johann Mühlegg (section)

==Competing for Spain==
After being ejected from the national team after the 1998 Nagano Games, his good relations with members of the Spanish cross-country skiing team, in particular [[Juan Jesús Gutiérrez Cuevas]] and Haritz Zunzunegui, opened the door for Mühlegg to obtain Spanish citizenship.

In late 1999, competing for Spain, he won a [[FIS Cross-Country World Cup|World Cup]] race for the first time. At the [[2001 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships]] in [[Lahti]], he won two medals with a silver in the 10&nbsp;km + 10&nbsp;km combined pursuit (stepping up when the original medalist [[Jari Isometsä]] was disqualified for [[hemohes]] use), and a gold in the 50&nbsp;km freestyle race. These are the only medals ever that Spain has won at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.

In the [[2002 Winter Olympics]] in [[Salt Lake City]], Mühlegg won gold medals in the 30&nbsp;km freestyle and the 10&nbsp;km + 10&nbsp;km pursuit races, the successes gaining him congratulations from King [[Juan Carlos I of Spain]].

Mühlegg finished first in the 50&nbsp;km classical race held on the final Saturday of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games on 23 February 2002 but was disqualified from that race and was expelled from the Games the next day, after testing positive for [[darbepoetin]] (a medicine which boosts red blood cell count; the substance was not banned at the time since it had only recently been developed).{{#tag:ref|Traces of darbepoetin were found in a random urine test on 21 February. Before the 50&nbsp;km race on 23 February, a random test for hemoglobin levels found Mühlegg above the limit; a second test five minutes later was below the limit, and he was allowed to compete. At the end of the race he came on extremely strong (and, as was later shown, unnaturally strong) to beat [[Mikhail Ivanov (cross-country skier)|Mikhail Ivanov]] of Russia by 14.9 seconds.|group=nb}}