Banned Austrian coach in car crash as anti-doping war escalates
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-20 09:13

Austrian officials said Mayer had been in Italy in a private capacity and had no official connection with the team. Biathlon coach Alfred Eder confirmed that Mayer spent the night in the athletes' accommodations, but only the night after he arrived.

At a news conference, Ljungqvist held up a postcard showing Mayer in an Austrian Olympic biathlon team photo. He said that while Mayer's presence in Italy didn't break the IOC ban, it violated the "spirit" of the decision to keep him out of the games.

The involvement of police is in line with Italian law, which treats doping as a criminal offense. Any doping case would be investigated and prosecuted by Italian magistrates.

The raids came just before midnight Saturday, when police swarmed a home rented by the biathlon team near the mountain hamlet of San Sicario; a similar search was conducted at quarters in nearby Pragelato. The athletes were taken by IOC doping control officers to nearby Sestriere for tests.

Officers "confiscated material of various origin ... which will have to undergo laboratory analysis," Col. Angelo Agovino, commander of the Carabinieri police force in Turin, said. He did not elaborate.

Heinz Jungwirth, general secretary of the Austrian Olympic Committee, said "certain medicines" were confiscated.

Carabinieri in Turin refused to confirm the reports. No one answered calls at the prosecutor's office, and an Associated Press reporter attempting to enter the building was told to return Monday.

The Austrian cross-country relay team competed Sunday morning in the men's 4x10km relay, finishing last out of 16 teams.

Two biathletes — Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann — were kicked off the team after leaving the Olympics following Saturday's raids, Jungwirth told Austrian media. Both had finished their events on Saturday and weren't scheduled to compete again.