Austrian coach stirs up Games doping scandal

Published on Wednesday 22 February 2006 12:43

EVIDENCE is mounting that a banned Austrian ski coach may have stirred up a major doping scandal at the Olympics.

The head of the Austrian ski federation said two athletes confessed to a team official they "may have used illegal methods" at the Turin Games. And it was revealed that evidence seized in a surprise sweep over the weekend included unlabeled drugs, a blood transfusion machine and dozens of syringes, including some at the Olympic residence of the banished coach.

"It is indeed a saga," International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said. "Not even Hollywood could come up with a scenario like it."

The IOC said Tuesday it will set up a special panel to investigate the doping scandal involving the Austrian Nordic ski team.

The Austrian Olympic committee, ski federation, athletes and coaches will all be covered by the investigation, likely to begin once the Olympics have ended, he said. The IOC could take sanctions against the Austrians even without any athletes testing positive for banned substances.

"To find somebody guilty of doping you don't necessarily need urine and blood samples," Rogge said. "It can also be based on circumstantial evidence."

The IOC said Wednesday morning that the Olympic drug-testing lab was still analysing the doping samples of 10 Austrian biathletes and cross-country skiers taken last weekend. IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the results should be known by the end of the games on Sunday, but didn't rule out the possibility the process could stretch beyond then.

"Analysis done by a lab is something that needs to be done very thoroughly," she said. "They are testing against the full range of prohibited substances, including EPO. This can take time."

The saga began to unfold during the weekend when Italian police, who heard that banned coach Walter Mayer had arrived in the Italian Alps, raided the team's lodgings, seizing items and bringing several athletes to be tested.

The unprecedented IOC investigation was triggered when Olympic officials found that Mayer was at the games. He was banned from the Olympics for links to blood doping in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, Great Britain curling skip David Murdoch has revealed that he is looking to Rhona Martin for inspiration as his all Scots side bid for a gold-medal shot in tonight's semi-final against Finland.

Martin's Olympic curling title defence may have ended but the star of 2002 still casts a shadow.

"I've watched that video of Rhona winning in Salt Lake so many times and wished it was me," said Murdoch. "You work for so long to get a chance to make a shot like she did and what happened is inspirational."