March 21, 2019 (Austria) – Munich State Prosecutor Kai Graeber announced on Tuesday that 21 athletes from eight countries and five sports have been linked to the blood doping ring that was discovered following raids at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Austria in February.

The German news agency ARD-aktuell reported on Tuesday that there is growing evidence to suggest that a number of these athletes could have been competing in the Tour de France.

Five elite athletes and four others were originally arrested at the FIS World Championships, including Austrian skiers Max Hauke and Dominik Baldauf, Alexei Poltoranin of Kazakhstan, and Estonian teammates Karel Tammjärv and Andreas Veerpalu.

Doctor Mark Schmidt is allegedly at the center of the doping scheme, and was also arrested during the time of the raids in February.

Since then, professional cyclists Stefan Denifl from Aqua Blue Racing, and Austrian Georg Preidler from Groupama- FDJ admitted to blood doping in connection with the ring of other athletes.

Graeber said in a press conference that three winter and two summer sports were involved in the doping ring. He also reported that the scheme has been running since 2011 up until the arrests were made at the World Nordic Skiing Championships.

“Blood was reportedly taken around the world to Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia and the American state of Hawaii,” said Graeber. “We have here an exciting story with a lot of twists and the final chapter has not yet been written.”

The details and names of the athletes have yet to be released.