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Police search house at Austria ski base

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 06:24 CST

By Antonella Ciancio

TURIN (Reuters) - Italian police carried out an anti-doping search on quarters near the Austrian cross-country coaches' base at the Winter Olympics on Monday night, an Italian police source said on Tuesday.

Police searched quarters at the Pragelato cross-country skiing base in the Italian Alps where banned Austrian coach Walter Mayer stayed at the weekend.

"We searched the house where Mayer stayed. Nothing was found," the source told Reuters.

Mayer visited Austrian athletes at the Winter Olympics in Italy despite a ban after a blood doping scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

His visit spurred an Italian police raid on the Austrian biathlon and cross-country athletes' quarters on Saturday. Ten athletes were taken for urine tests and police found used medical equipment including syringes.

The Austrian Skiing Federation's director of cross-country and biathlon, Markus Gandler, told Austrian state television ORF that he had rented the searched place for a "private citizen" accompanying the Austrian team.

"This has nothing to do with the (National Olympic Committee) or the (Austrian Skiing Federation), this was rented for private citizen," Gandler said. He added that he had rented the quarter in Pragelato Plan.

"This place was searched yesterday," Gandler added. "Nothing was found."

'A SCANDAL'

The fresh search angered Otto Jung, the coach of Austrian cross-country skier Martin Stockinger.

"I had dinner in a pizzeria and when I came home it looked as if a bomb had hit the place," Austrian news agency APA quoted Jung as telling a group of Austrian journalists.

"Cupboards were thrown open, bags were emptied, things destroyed."

APA also quoted the skiing federation's Gandler as saying: "What they are doing with us here is a scandal." He said the federation's president, Peter Schroecksnadel, would hold a news conference later in the day.

But at the ski venue of Sestriere, Austrian Olympic Committee secretary general Heinz Jungwirth said the search was a routine procedure, but declined to give further details of the operation.

APA quoted Jung as saying the fresh raid took place for two to three hours from around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. on Monday evening at the cross-country coaches' quarters.

The IOC said it was unaware of any new raid.

IOC director of communications Giselle Davies told reporters the IOC had not heard anything regarding a fresh raid on the Austrian quarters.

(Additional reporting by Boris Groendahl in Vienna)

Source: REUTERS

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