King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Hockey, doping scandal: Olympics' best sport, biggest story both missing from NBC prime time.
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Feb. 23, 2006 | You wouldn't know this by watching NBC's coverage, but there's a big doping scandal at the Turin Olympics.
It started Saturday when Italian police and the International Olympic Committee raided the living quarters of the Austrian biathlon and cross-country ski teams in San Sicario and Pragelato. The authorities say they found dozens of syringes, some of them used, unlabeled drugs and a blood transfusion machine.
The police were acting on a tip that banned coach Walter Mayer had been seen around the Austrian skiers and biathletes. Mayer was linked to blood doping in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, and he's barred from both the Turin Olympics and the Vancouver Games in 2010. He fled the country Saturday, then crashed into a police roadblock just inside the Austrian border.
Mayer later told an Austrian magazine that he panicked and was trying to commit suicide when he intentionally crashed because "I was completely shattered, I couldn't think clearly."
He denied that he was in Italy as a coach, saying he'd simply made a personal trip as a spectator. But Peter Schroecksnadel, the president of the Austrian ski federation, said at a news conference Tuesday that it was a mistake to have allowed Mayer to act as a private coach for team members in Turin.
Mayer also denied that he had any medical equipment or drugs. The Austrians say the seized machine was used for testing hemoglobin levels.
Police say another raid Monday night on Mayer's rented house yielded more syringes. He pleaded guilty in Austria Tuesday to civil disorder, assault and property damage charges stemming from the roadblock crash.
Meanwhile, two Austrian biathletes, Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottman, also returned to Austria, apparently fearing jail time in Italy, where sports doping is a crime. Schroecksnadel, the ski federation chief, said they've admitted they "may have used illegal methods" to get ready for the Olympics. They were kicked off the team for leaving without authorization.
Another coach, Emil Hoch, seems to have slipped away as well.
The Turin Games have been notable for the most stringent drug enforcement ever, with 70 percent more drug tests than in Salt Lake City and drug cops leaping out of the bushes to try to catch offenders. But only one athlete has tested positive. Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of her silver medal and sent home last week after a test turned up a banned stimulant.
Does that lone positive drug test mean the big crackdown is working and the athletes are all competing clean? Or is it an indication that for all the surveillance and raids and surprise drug tests, the drug cops are miles behind the dopers?
Well, what do you think?
The Austrians practically erected a giant billboard saying, "Please raid us" when they allowed Mayer, a coach banned for doping, to get anywhere near their athletes, never mind work with them. The inevitable shining of the police flashlight on their business revealed all sorts of apparent doping activity, according to the cops and the IOC.
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