Wednesday, July 25,

Italians Managed Coup in Wiping out Austrian Olympic Winter Team’s Dope Operation

The ANNOTICO Report

The Italian Winter Olympic Team wizened by the "Bust" of the Austrian Team in Salt Lake in 2002, and with the Winter Olympics taking place in Turin in 2006, alerted the Italian Police, who benefiting from the much stricter laws in place in Italy, than in all other parts of Europe, allowed for warrants and raids on athletes rooms that permitted a giant expose. 

It helped immeasurably that Walter Mayer, a discredited coach of the Austria team, was rather brazen in his actions in Turin.

How Italians Managed Blood-filled Coup in Wiping out Austrian Team’s Dope Operation

London Times Online

July 24, 2007

The most open, detailed expose of a case of systematic doping in sport was recently revealed in an investigation by the IOC and posted on its website. It is important for two reasons: first, it shows how sophisticated large-scale and well-planned drug-taking can be, even on the doorstep of an Olympic Games; and second, it raises the question of whether such an operation could be uncovered if it took place at London 2012.

The tale of the Austrian drugs bust at the Winter Olympics in Turin last year starts four years earlier, on February 26, 2002, shortly after the Salt Lake City Olympics, when various doping materials - including three blood bags and multiple infusion sets -were found by a cleaner in the chalet that had been occupied by Walter Mayer, a coach of the Austria cross-country and biathlon team, and his wife. After an investigation by the IOC, Mayer was found guilty of doping violations and declared ineligible to participate in any Olympics up to and including 2010.

This did not put him off. His flouting of this ruling at the next Winter Games is staggeringly brazen. Mayer admitted to an Austrian investigation that he had not gone to Turin purely as a tourist. All who know me also know that I love to combine business with pleasure in such cases, he said.

The truth that emerged showed that he had not only stayed in the teams accommodation, he had helped to choose it. He was pictured in team photographs, had helped in team selection and at the start of the Games was even introduced to the media as the cross-country skiing and biathlon team head trainer. Given what is now known, it seems that he would not have been hard to spot.

When the Italian police raided the Austrians accommodation on February 18 in the Alps above Turin, Mayer headed for the border in his car. He was intercepted on the other side because he crashed and had to go to hospital.

Since then, the Austrian Olympic Committee has been fined by the IOC, while two biathletes and four cross-country skiers have been banned for life after IOC investigations based on police findings. Appeals have been made to the Court for Arbitration in Sport to have the bans overturned.

Significantly, this sophisticated doping laboratory was not set up in any Olympic village accommodation, but in private accommodation rented by the team. It was within the powers of the antidoping authorities in Turin merely to knock on the door and ask to take urine samples. Far better, though, they tipped off the police that the law was being flouted and the whole operation was busted.

In the UK, though, doping and DIY blood transfusions are not illegal. Therefore, in a similar situation in London 2012, the drugs testers presumably will be left waiting at the door until the laboratory has been cleared away and the athletes are ready to test.

In Italy, this law was very helpful to us, Professor Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the medical commission of the IOC, said. It was a very good example of how we can operate - it was the entire basis of the Austrian affair, it was what allowed the police to act. We could test, they could raid. A genuine understanding of the extent of the doping problem in cycling came about only in the Festina affair during the 1998 Tour de France - and that was mostly thanks to police work. The next year, during the Giro dItalia, police made a number of raids on the cyclists hotels and again found manifold evidence that doping was taking place. In the UK, such crimes against sport probably would have remained undiscovered.

The notable exception here is Operation Puerto, the Spanish sting that uncovered systematic doping in cycling and a number of sports. But Operation Puerto shows the problem you have if, like in Spain, the law is not on your side, Ljungqvist said. They have uncovered it, but they are unable to manage it. A law in place is extremely helpful. Ljungqvist appeared in front of the German sports committee in the countrys Parliament last autumn and, as a result, the Germans amended their medical legislation to ban possession of doping substances. He is hoping to persuade the UK to follow.

On the eve of the Turin Games, there was a widespread fear that competitors failing drugs tests would be jailed, a fear that raised questions over the infallibility of the drugs tests. Such fears were misplaced.

There is a large difference between failing a drugs test and receiving a ban. And possessing doping substances and facing possible criminal charges. Athletes can contest positive drugs tests. When found in possession of an entire laboratory, as the Austrians were in Turin, it is entirely another matter.

What they found

Among the contents found by Italian police in the San Sicario chalet were syringes, needles, blood bags, butterfly valves for intravenous use, bottles of saline and devices for measuring haemoglobin levels and determining blood groups, as well as hCG and albumin, both of which are banned substances.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/

sport/london_2012/article2127569.ece

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