"We found drugs, needles"

ByEurosport

Published 20/02/2006 at 14:35 GMT

Police found more than 100 syringes and 30 packs of drugs including asthma drugs and antidepressants in the Saturday raid on the Austrian Olympic house an Italian prosecutor told Austrian TV. The revelations have forced banned biathlon coach Walter Mayer

BIATHLON 2005-2006 Oberhof Skier

Image credit: Reuters

Prosecutors also seized blood testing and transfusion devices in the raid on the nation's biathlon and cross-country team, Austrian state TV ORF said on it website on Monday, quoting Turin prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello.

ORF quoted an additional Turin prosecutor, Marcello Maddalena, as saying Italian police coordinated closely with the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Maddalena said, through ORF, that officials tried to disturb the athletes as little as possible during the raid.

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"But a raid is a raid," ORF quoted Maddalena as saying. "You cannot announce it in advance, nor can you put on your velvet gloves."

The stress of the acusations has forced banned former coach Walter Mayer to seek refuge in a psychiatric hospital, the Austrian Ski Federation president Peter Schroecksnadel told State Radio ORF on Monday.

"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. I couldn't talk to him myself," Schroecksnadel said.

COACH DENIALS

Head coach Alfred Eder has denied any knowledge of doping within his Austria team following weekend police raids on the squad's hotel.

Carabinieri swooped on Saturday following Mayer's visit to some athletes in the team.

But as the biathletes resumed training on Monday, Eder said if any of his biathletes were taking banned substances, they were doing so without his help.

"Every top sportsman is his own person and needs a private life, so, of course, they can also do something without our knowledge," Eder said, who saw Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann leave the Games without permission following the raids.

"I'll be very happy when the relay race gets underway on Tuesday. This is a very difficult time because I never imagined that something like this would hit our team.

"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."

Eder confirmed a bag was thrown from the team's accommodation during the police raid, but said he did not know who had thrown it.

"It might have been a panic reaction, but it certainly looks as if the police have found something," he said.

"If any of the athletes has done something wrong, then, of course, they will have no support from either the team or the Austrian Olympic Committee."

Mayer charged

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