Canadian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Dick Pound said in Turin Tuesday that the drug scandal surrounding Austria’s team might have a serious negative impact on Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Pound added, “they’ve got 16 months to respond, but they’ve taken a hit”.
The IOC is setting up a special panel to investigate the doping scandal involving the Austrian Nordic ski team, IOC President Jacques Rogge said Tuesday. Rogge told the Associated Press the commission will most likely be established after the Olympics once all the drug test results are in and the IOC has access to the evidence taken by the Italian police when it raided the Austrian team’s lodgings.
Rogge said the Austrian Olympic Committee, ski federation, athletes and coaches will all be covered by the investigation.
The Associated Press reports that Austrian ski federation president Peter Schroecksnadel has said two athletes, Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann, admitted to team sports director Markus Gandler that they may have used “illegal methods”. The two left the Games after the raids on the team’s living quarters, and have since been kicked off the team.
Police seized unlabeled drugs, a blood transfusion machine and dozens of syringes during the weekend raid.
Investigators also found more syringes in the rental living quarters of banned coach Walter Mayer, who also fled the Games following the raids.
Pound said “the fact that Mayer has been here with the Austrian team is provocation. The guy has been banned to 2010 and they are saying ‘he’s still here and we love him’”.
Schroecksnadel acknowledged it was a “mistake” for the team to have allowed Mayer to coach in a private capacity at the Turin Games after he was banned for links to blood doping at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
Meanwhile, according to an Austrian Web site, Salzburg’s Mayor Heinz Schaden, and leading politician Gabi Burgstaller are united in their support for Salzburg’s bid saying that the investigation would not be favourable to Salzburg’s 2014 bid, but they hoped it would not have a negative effect on the bid.
Schaden said he wants to make it clear that Salzburg stands one hundred per cent behind the IOC in its investigation.
Toni Schutti, manager of Salzburg 2014, blamed it on one individual, Walter Mayer. He said that in discussions with IOC officials he was told Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Games still stands.
