Fourteen banned by AOC for doping affair

The Austrian Olympic Committee imposed lifetime Olympic bans Tuesday on 14 team officials linked to the blood doping scandal at last year’s Torino Games.
VIENNA, Austria — The Austrian Olympic Committee imposed lifetime Olympic bans Tuesday on 14 team officials linked to the blood doping scandal at last year’s Torino Games.
    AOC President Leo Wallner, who announced the action after a special executive board session, said the 14 would be denied accreditation for all future Olympics.
    Also, any Austrians found guilty of a doping offense in the future will also be banned for life from the Olympics, Wallner said at a news conference.
    In another move to contain the Torino fallout, Austrian ski federation President Peter Schroecksnadel resigned as a vice president of the AOC.
    The developments, prompted by pressure from the International Olympic Committee, came as Austria tries to salvage Salzburg’s bid to host the 2014 Winter Games.
    Salzburg is competing against Sochi, Russia, and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The IOC will select the host city on July 4 in Guatemala City.
    “We want to bring the Games to Salzburg and with these decisions our chances are intact,” Salzburg Mayor Heinz Schaden said.
    “I want to repeat that the IOC sentenced individuals and not federations and therefore I am convinced that the doping case does not stand in any way against the 2014 Olympic bid in Salzburg,” Wallner said.
    The highest-ranking administrator banned was Markus Gandler, the sports director for the cross-country and biathlon teams.
    The sanction also covers Walter Mayer, the former nordic coach who had been banned by the IOC from two Olympics after a blood-doping case at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
    Mayer’s unauthorized presence with the team at the 2006 Games prompted a raid by Italian police on the Austrian athletes’ living quarters. Authorities seized large amounts of doping products and equipment, while Mayer fled the scene and crashed his car into a police roadblock across the Austrian border.
    Among others banned by the AOC on Tuesday were team doctor Peter Baumgartl and physiotherapist Volker Mueller.
    Mueller, like Mayer, had been banned from two Olympics after the Salt Lake City case. Baumgartl received a “strong warning” from the IOC in the 2002 affair.
    In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Baumgartl said neither the AOC nor the IOC had accused him of doping and that he had repeatedly warned athletes about drug use.
    “Should I have done room inspections and looked into people’s night stands? All I can do is warn the athletes, but I’m not a policeman or a nanny,” Baumgartl said.
    The others banned, all attached to the cross-country and biathlon teams, were: Alfred Eder, Walter Gapp, Walter Hoerl, Heinz Muehlbacher, Stefan Rohrmoser, Emil Hoch, Andreas Eder, Gerald Heigl, Reinhard Neuner and Gerhard Urain.
    Wallner said the AOC took action against the team officials because banned equipment was found in their living quarters. The decision was made whether they were directly involved in doping or not.
    Heinz Jungwirth, the AOC’s secretary-general, said the men were all housed outside the athletes’ village but were officially accredited through the Olympic committee.
    “It was therefore our responsibility,” Jungwirth said.
    Wallner acknowledged that the AOC “did not take the steps to control the situation outside the Olympic Village.”
    Last week, the IOC issued a US$1 million ($743,000) fine on the AOC for failing to prevent the scandal in Torino.
    The AOC said Tuesday that the money would be transferred to its account by the Austrian ski federation and then given to the IOC for anti-doping programs. Previously, the IOC said the money would be withheld over time from the AOC’s share of Olympic grants and revenues.
    “It will show from our side we fully support the activities of the IOC,” Jungwirth said.
    Last month, the IOC banned six Austrian cross-country skiers and biathletes for life from the Olympics for their role in the Torino case.
    Wallner also ordered the ski federation to clean its house by the IOC’s deadline of June 30, 2008.
    Schroecksnadel said he hopes his resignation as AOC vice president will help Salzburg’s bid. He is staying as chief of the ski federation.
    “I am a fanatical Austrian and in no way do I want to stand in the way of a successful bid,” Schroecksnadel said. “I hope that with this the [Salzburg bid] outcome will be positive and Austria will get the Olympic Games. … I don’t want to be to blame.”

— The Associated Press