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6 Austrians banned for life in Olympic doping crackdown
April 25, 2007
BEIJING (AP) -- It took more than a year to punish anyone in the doping scandal that shook the Turin Winter Olympics. When the verdicts came down Wednesday, the penalties were unprecedented.
Six Austrian cross country skiers and biathletes received lifetime bans from the Olympics for involvement in an organized blood-doping scheme -- the harshest sanctions given to athletes by the International Olympic Committee.
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And the case isn't closed yet. Next month, the IOC will investigate the role of Austrian coaches, officials and doctors.
It's the first time the IOC has disqualified athletes for doping violations without positive tests, and the first time athletes have been banned by the IOC for life. Based on evidence seized in Italian police raids, the Austrians were found guilty of possessing prohibited substances and taking part in a doping conspiracy.
"It is a milestone," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.
The results of the Austrian athletes from the 2006 Games were annulled, although none won medals.
Those banned were cross country skiers Martin Tauber, Juergen Pinter, Johannes Eder and Roland Diethart, and biathletes Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann. The six are ineligible for accreditation in any capacity at the Olympics -- as athletes, coaches or officials.
"The severity of the sanctions is motivated by the fact that these cases go further than straightforward possession of prohibited substances and methods and are clear instances where a network, including athletes, colluded to manipulate blood and to engage into doping practices," the IOC said.
The IOC action applies only to Olympic competition. It would be up to the Austrian and international ski federations to suspend the athletes from non-Olympic events.
IOC vice president Thomas Bach, a German lawyer who led the internal investigation, said the probe will continue with hearings for non-athletes next month. He did not identify them. The IOC can also ban coaches and other accredited team personnel from the Olympics.
Also Wednesday, the IOC executive board endorsed president Jacques Rogge's proposal for a Youth Olympics starting in 2010 for athletes aged 14-18, and reiterated that the IOC won't pressure China on human rights or other political issues ahead of the 2008 Beijing Games. The three cities vying for the 2014 Winter Games -- Pyeongchang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; and Sochi, Russia -- made public presentations with less than three months before the IOC vote.
Italian police raided Austrian team lodgings outside Turin on Feb. 18, 2006. The move followed a tip that former Austrian coach Walter Mayer, who was implicated in a blood-doping case at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and banned from the Turin Olympics, was in the area.
Mayer fled after the raid. He crashed his car into a police roadblock after crossing into Austria, ending up briefly in a psychiatric hospital.
In tandem with the police action, Olympic drug-testers conducted surprise doping checks on 10 Austrian athletes. The tests came back negative, but the IOC said it would continue its investigation based on the police findings.
The IOC received the report from Italian investigators this year, and a three-man disciplinary panel held two days of hearings on the case this month in Lausanne, Switzerland. All the Austrian athletes who were asked to appear declined.
The Italian police report, as quoted by the IOC, detailed a stunning array of doping products, methods and equipment. Police found syringes, needles, blood bags, butterfly valves for intravenous use, bottles of saline and devices for measuring hemoglobin levels and determining blood groups, as well as the banned substances hCG and albumin.
The police report said one athlete, Rottmann, even threw a plastic bag out his window during the raid that contained illicit materials.
The investigation found that much of the material was used for blood transfusions, which is banned by the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency. Blood doping boosts endurance by increasing the level of oxygen-rich red blood cells in the body.
"What is remarkable is that all this material was in possession of the athletes," Bach said. "There was no official doctor. This was not a laboratory of the team or the medical room of the team. This was the dormitories of the athletes."
Bach said the evidence showed the athletes were working together.
"This kind of behavior constitutes in principle an additional offense, a kind of conspiracy, of covering up in this case," he said. "We thought this to be very aggravating circumstances which required a severe sanction."
Peter Schroecksnadel, chief of the Austrian Ski Federation, said his organization was "not involved in this story." He said the federation would hold disciplinary hearings to "get to the bottom" of the scandal.
"If it turns out that there's something to this, then the disciplinary commission will also punish the athletes," said Schroecksnadel, whose own position has come under scrutiny. "But if it turns out that there isn't, then the Austrian Ski Federation will defend the athletes."
Tauber, one of the banned cross country skiers, said he will fight the IOC's decision.
"I did nothing forbidden," Tauber told the Austria Press Agency, adding he had been found in possession of a device for measuring hemoglobin but that "nowhere is it written that I'm not allowed to own it."
Updated on Wednesday, Apr 25, 2007 4:06 pm EDT
