Reuters reports that Salzburg’s mayor Heinz Schaden said in an Austrian television interview that he has urged Austrian coach Walter Mayer to drop his legal action against International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge because the lawsuit could harm Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Schaden said in the interview, “he is really stirring things up with this action. That is certainly not good for Salzburg’s Olympic bid”.
Mayer’s lawyer Herwig Hasslacher told Reuters Wednesday he had filed a defamation suite against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its president Dick Pound, at Vienna’s district court. He said he would be bringing a similar case against Rogge within the next 24 hours.
Hasslacher said, “I find it incredible that the mayor is telling Mayer he should not exercise his rights”.
Hasslacher said Pound damaged his client’s professional reputation in an interview given to Austria’s Die Presse newspaper following a doping raid on the coach’s home. “He told the newspaper that they had found equipment that could be used for blood doping, whereas in fact all they found was a perfectly legitimate lactate-measuring device”.
Rogge is being sued for comments attributed to him during the Turin Games.
The IOC and the Austrian Olympic Committee are carrying out separate inquiries into the events in February. Mayer is involved in investigations by the Italian and Austrian police.
