Light the Torch – Beijing Olympics and Other Olympic News

Austrians Angry Over Police Raid

by HART on February 19th, 2006

Follow up => to my previous post … Blame the police?

Italian law enforcement authorities raided the Olympic residences of Austria’s biathlon and cross-country teams early Sunday, but found no evidence of doping. It marked the first anti-doping police raid on athletes in Olympic history.

…….”They checked every drink, every food, and they took a lot of stuff with them,” Austrian spokesman Eric Wagner claimed. “They came around 9 and stayed until 12 and then took the athletes away to be tested.” Austria finished dead last in Sunday’s 4×10-kilometre relay. “They absolutely ruined the race,” Austrian skier Martin Tauber said. “I was already a little bit tired yesterday.”

…… Italian police were acting on a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency, an organization headed by Canadian lawyer Dick Pound. Pound told the Associated Press on Saturday that doping control officers went to Austria to test athletes and, while they did not find who they were looking for, they did find blood doping equipment linked to Walter Mayer, a former nordic coach banned for suspicion of performing blood transfusions on athletes at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games.

[… more …]

What do you think? Isn’t drug testing of our athletes enough? Can’t the raids wait until after the Olympics or at Customs trying to leave the country?

*shrugs*

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POSTED IN: Olympic News