Austrian team raided
ByReuters
Published 18/02/2006 at 23:02 GMT
Italian police staged a late-night raid on the Austrian biathlon team's Winter Olympics quarters on Saturday in Turin. The IOC confirmed that unannounced out-of-competition doping tests had been conducted on "a number of Austrian cross-country and biathlo
BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 AUSTRIA Mesotitsch Feature
Image credit: dpa
It added: "In this instance, the IOC has acted on information it received in a report given to it by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which indicates the possible presence of Mr Walter Mayer in the private accommodation of the Austrian biathlon and cross-country teams.
"Given that Mr Mayer has been declared ineligible to participate in all Olympic Games up to and including Vancouver 2010, based on his involvement in blood manipulation offences committed in Salt Lake City in 2002, the IOC is fulfilling its responsibility to conduct anti-doping controls on athletes who might have been under his influence."
As coach, Mayer took Austria's cross-country team to their first ever Olympic medals in Nordic skiing at the 1998 Games. He added gold in the relay at the 1999 world championships and two more medals in the Salt Lake Games.
He was banned for life by the International Ski Federation after the discovery of blood transfusion equipment in a chalet at Salt Lake but said the equipment was a therapeutic remedy and not performance enhancing.
Mayer remains barred from all Olympics up to the 2010 Games in Vancouver but his FIS ban was cut to 10 years in 2005.
An Italian investigative source told Reuters that Saturday's searches had been made at the request of the Turin prosecutors but nothing untoward had been found so far.
Secretary-general of the Austrian Olympic Committee Heinz Jungwirth earlier told Reuters they would be protesting to the IOC.
He said that police and doping controllers from the IOC had arrived at Pragelato during the course of the evening.
SESTRIERE TEST
From two private buildings housing the Austrian teams, they drove all the country's biathlon and cross country competitors -- 15 in total, all men -- the 5km to Sestriere where they were tested.
They were then returned to their bases in Pragelato. "The athletes do not feel guilty -- they haven't done anything wrong," he said.
"We are going to protest vigorously the way this was done."
He continued: "We are in favour of controls but these kind of methods, turning up at such a late hour are not acceptable.
"We are in competition tomorrow and this is harassment." Jungwirth said he expected to receive the results of the tests "as early as possible tomorrow".
IOC Director of Communications Giselle Davies told Reuters Television the unannounced doping tests on the athletes had been conducted at a clinic in Sestriere near the Olympic village.
"Everything went smoothly. There were no complaints given," she said. "It is sad testing has to happen."
But she added clean athletes had to be protected from the cheats.
The IOC has run over 500 tests since the Games began, many of them unannounced, she said. "They are an important fight against doping."
There are nine Austrian cross-country athletes at the Games but the country have yet to win a medal in any of the three men's races to date. There are three men's cross-country races remaining, including Sunday's 4x10-km relay.
NO MEDALLIST
All six of Austria's biathletes are also men, according to the Olympic News Service. There have been three men's biathlon races so far at the 2006 Winter Games and not one Austrian medallist in the sport.
There are two more biathlon men's races due before the end of the Feb. 10-26 Olympics. The next is scheduled for Tuesday.
The Italian government, which introduced strict doping laws before it won the right to host the Turin Olympics, has refused to relax them to correspond with IOC rules which foresee only non-penal sanctions for drugs users.
Even a last-minute compromise between the IOC and the host country on who would handle the doping tests during the Games had failed to include a moratorium on launching criminal procedures against athletes found using banned substances.
That left the IOC concerned that athletes could be subjected to police raids and face prison sentences if they tested positive.
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