February 18, 2006 – Italian police staged a late-night raid on the Austrian biathlon team’s Winter Olympics quarters on Saturday in Turin. The secretary-general of the Austrian Olympic Committee Heinz Jungwirth told Reuters there had been a police raid on Austrian biathletes in Pragelato.

The Austrian cross-country team were also subjected to a raid, an Austrian team source said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) later confirmed that unannounced out-of-competition doping tests had been conducted on “a number of Austrian cross-country and biathlon athletes.”

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. Walther Mayer in the private accommodation of the Austrian biathlon and cross country teams. (Mayer was found guilty of being associated with blood manipulation of Austrian cross country skiers in the Salt Lake Games of 2002)

“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 2002, the IOC is fulfilling its responsibility to conduct anti-doping controls on athletes who might have been under his influence.”

The investigate source said: “The searches are ongoing in the Austrian biathlon staff’s lodgings. They were made at the request of the Turin prosecutors.”

The source added that nothing had been found so far. The secretary-general of the Austrian Olympic Committee Heinz Jungwirth told Reuters that they would be protesting to the International Olympic Committee.

“There was a suspicion of doping and the athletes had to submit to doping tests,” he said.

The Austrian Press Agency (APA) quoted biathlon chief coach Alfred Eder as saying the private homes of cross-country and biathlon athletes in San Sicaro and Pragelato had been raided by Italian carabinieri acting on an order by the Turin prosecution.

GROTESQUE SITUATION

The team assistant and other personnel were ordered to stay in their rooms and were not allowed to make any telephone calls, APA said.

“I cannot speak, I am sorry,” said the Austrian skiing sports director Markus Gandler when contacted by the agency.

According to Eder, the operation started at 1900 local time and was still ongoing at 2200. “This is a grotesque situation. I do not know what was happening in the house. I am sitting here in a room and I cannot leave,” Eder told the APA.

There have been six biathlon races so far at the 2006 Winter Games and not one Austrian medallist in the sport.

There are four more biathlon 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.