Torino Diary:Jekyll & Hyde

ByEurosport

Published 20/02/2006 at 23:45 GMT

Austria's Winter Olympic team showed remarkable polarity on Monday with drugs scandals, road ram-raids, suicidal tendencies, one outrageous statement and more than a fair share of syringes on one hand, and a bundle of glorious gold and bronze medals on th

BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Austria Mayer

Image credit: dpa

Morning breaks, tension awakes

Dawn breaks in the Olympic village on Monday. It's a big day for the Austria team, with potential gold medals up for grabs in three prestigious events. But the mood is not as it should be after the clock-and-dagger events of two nights previously when Italian police raided the Austrian biathlon and cross-country team chalet.

Over the breakfast table news filters in: most notably the confirmation that two Austrian biathletes - Wolfgangs Perner (pictured left on like alongside Mayer) and Rottmann - did an overnight runner from the Games without telling their national committee.

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BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Walter Mayer and Wolfgang Perner

Image credit: Reuters

"If they suddenly leave like this they don't seem to be very interested in taking part," says Austrian Olympic Committee secretary-general Heinz Jungwirth, before slapping them with a ban that could last until the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

Hit and run, brush with the law

Midmorning: it emerges that disgraced Austrian coach Walter Mayer has found himself in a bit of a pickle with the police. Mayer, who was kicked off the Austrian coaching team in 2002 following a blood doping scandal at the Salt Lake City Games, had been at the root of the recent raids imbroglio after he was discovered to be still in liaison with some athletes, including the run-away pair of Wolfgangs.

Well, the Austrian police now release a statement saying the Mayer has been charged with civil disorder after ramming into a police road block in his car on Sunday following his fleeing from the scene. The crackpot coach also refused an alcohol test by Austrian authorities.

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING walter mayer

Image credit: Imago

World ad-Maiers Raich

Meanwhile, back in Sestrières, things couldn't be much better for the Austrian Alpine skiing team: Benjamin Raich finally realises his great potential and wins a well deserved gold medal in the giant slalom; veteran Hermann Maier, variably known as The Herminator and Das Monster, takes bronze - his third Olympic medal after two golds in the Nagano 1998 Games.

"I have wanted to win an Olympic race since I was a child," says Raich, who fell to the ground in relief when the last skier came past the post and his title was secured.

ALPINE SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2006 Maier Raich Giant Slalom Men

Image credit: dpa

"I am so relieved."

A few needles in a haystack

Relieved is certainly more than can be said for all those involved in Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiing, for back in Turin, Italian prosecutor Raffaele Guarincello lets it slip that during Friday night's raid, police picked up over 100 syringes and 30 packs of drugs, including asthma treatments and antidepressants (the latter, probably, property of Mayer - see later).

Devices for blood testing and transfusions are also found, ostensibly further incriminating the incriminated coach. Jungwirth is quick to react and stresses that Mayer "is in no way a member of the Austrian Olympic team." Bizarrely, he adds:

"I also remind you that under Austrian law, Walter Mayer is not guilty of anything." Oh... so in Austria it is perfectly legit to tamper with athletes' blood, flee Italian police, drive into an Austrian road block (injuring one officer) and refuse breath tests?

Dorf the master

But back on the more lucid world of the ski slope, things cannot get any better for Austria's commanding Alpine skiing team. In the women's afternoon Super-G, Michaela Dorfmeister makes it a clean sweep of the speed events by beating Croatia's Janica Kostelic to the gold just days after winning the downhill.

ALPINE SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2006 Dorfmeister Super G Women

Image credit: dpa

Replicating Maier's earlier third place, Alexandra Meissnitzer also takes the bronze medal. It's not every day that one nation wins two golds and two bronzes in one sport in the space of a couple of hours!

Jekyll hides the drugs?

The woe is not over, however. With rumours of syringes and needles flying around, head biathlon coach Alfred Eden comes clean and admits that one of the Austrian team did indeed - as reported - throw a bad containing incriminating evidence through a window and out of the hotel during the police raids.

He denies any complicity: "Everyone is coming up to me and saying you must have known something but I don't sleep in the same room as the athletes and I don't search through their things."

Maier ad-mayer-ation

Back in Sestrieres, Hermann Maier, speaking to the press after his podium finish, takes the chance to, wait for it, defend his near-namesake Mayer.

"What I find really terrible is to organise this kind of manhunt on one person where one is really being hunted like Osama bin Laden. It is not comparable," the 33-year-old says.

ALPINE SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2006 Maier Giant Slalom Men

Image credit: dpa

Into the loony bin

No sooner has Maier urged the press to cut down on their Mayer lambasting than reports surface that Mayer, 48, has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

The Austrian Ski Federation president Peter Schroecksnadel tells State Radio ORF: "Walter Mayer is in the psychiatric hospital, unfortunately. He's in custody to protect himself because apparently he's said he wanted to commit suicide or something like that."

More medals

Meanwhile, some athletes were actually being encouraged to throw themselves off a steep hill and plummet to the depths below: the Austrian ski jumping team were performing in the high hill team competition.

And woe and behold, they went on to win it! After a thrilling finale studded with prodigious leaps, it was Austrian team of Martin Koch, Andreas Widhoelzl, Andreas Kofler and large hill champion Thomas Morgensten who beat Janne Ahonen's Finland by over seven points. Norway took third.

SKI JUMPING 2006 Large Hill Torino Morgenstern and Kofler show off their medals

Image credit: Reuters

The great display of mountain hopping ensured that Austria completed what turned out to be a tricky and controversial day on a high note with their third gold (and fifth medal) in 24 hours!

Other news: Ice fashion faux-pas

Sunday's ice dancing original programme had its fair share of thrills and spills, not to mention some quite frankly hideous costumes.

But Israeli ice queen Galit Chait defended her and her fellow competitors to wear these flagrant monstrosities: "I think it's good to have slinky outfits. If you have the body, why not show it?" said the modest blond, sporting a backless pink number that gave way into a puffball of white feathers.

The dress immediately conjured up images of that ridiculous swan-dress once worn by Icelandic pop oddball Bjork. Maintaining a similar line of thought, Chait's partner Sergei Sakhovski said: "I call it 'chicken feather'."

The curse of the poster

It's no debate: French outsiders have done exceptionally well in these Winter Games. Let's see: who could have expected gold medals from downhill skier Antoine Deneriaz and unheralded biathlete Florence Bavarel-Robert, no to mention Monday's shock giant slalom silver by Joel Chenal?

But could it be that France's main protagonists were somewhat hampered by The Curse of... the National Team's Winter Olympic Promotional Poster?!

FIGURE SKATING Brian Joubert falls on ass at Lyon 2006

Image credit: Reuters

Gold medal-chasing alpine skier Carole Montillet, biathlete Raphael Poiree, cross-country skier Vincent Vittoz and figure skater Brian Joubert all featured prominently on the offending poster. Each and every one of them choked, flopped or crashed out.

"It's going to hard to find athletes willing to be on the poster for Beijing!" ribald sports minister Jean-Francois Lamour joked on Monday.

Fine that Frenchman!

Alpine skier Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin was slapped with a 3,500 euro fine by the International Skiing Federation after he proffered his middle finger in the general direction of the mountain during Saturday's super-G.

Dalcin had lead the event after 17 skiers but the race was stopped due to poor weather and rescheduled. In the re-run, the Frenchman missed a gate and was disqualified.

Once he reached the bottom of the run, Dalcin made the obscene gesture at the slope: "I was robbed and that's it," he told reporters.

The FIS deemed this as unsportsmanlike behaviour and condemned what could be a bad influence for youngsters worldwide.

Yet a few miles down the road, ice hockey players take pot shots at each other on a regular basis - and this is seen as a generally accepted part of the sport.

Torino 2006