VIENNA: The Nordic world skiing championships in the Austrian resort of Seefeld were rocked on Wednesday by police raids targeting a suspected doping network, with nine arrests made – including five athletes.
Austrian and German police carried out a series of raids in both countries.
Markus Gandler from the Austrian Ski Association (OSV) told ORF television that two cross-country skiers from the Austrian team, Dominik Baldauf and Max Hauke, were among those who had been arrested.
“I’m in a state of shock. It’s not the first time and it looks like it’s not the last time either,” Gandler said.
One Kazakh and two Estonian athletes were also held, Austria’s Federal Criminal Police Office said in a statement.
Police spokesman Dieter Csefan said that one of the arrested athletes had been “caught in the act.”
“He was seized with a blood transfusion in his arm,” Csefan told a press conference.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said it was co-operating with police forces in two countries.
“The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) can confirm that it has been in close communication with law enforcement authorities in relation to the raids and arrests that police carried out today (Wednesday) in Austria and Germany,” a statement said.
“The raids were part of a wider police operation targeting criminals from a number of European countries, and WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Department has been providing information and other assistance to the authorities in the course of their operation,” it added.
Austrian police say the doping ring has been active for at least five years and was based in Erfurt in Germany.
The ring is “strongly suspected of carrying out blood doping of elite athletes in order to improve their performances in national and international competitions and to gain illegal profit from this“, the police said.
A 40-year-old sports doctor, named as ‘Mark S’, is thought by police to have been a central figure in the doping ring and was arrested along with an alleged accomplice.
German prosecutors said in a statement that nine of the buildings searched were in Erfurt, with Austrian police saying that an illegal doping laboratory was found there.
Nine people were arrested in total and 16 properties searched as part of the crackdown which involved 120 police officers and was dubbed ‘Operation Bloodletting’.
Prosecutors say the police actions were sparked by revelations made by Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Duerr in a programme broadcast on German television in January.
Duerr was thrown out of the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and labelled a “scoundrel” by his own team after testing positive for blood booster EPO.
In the German TV programme he set out detailed claims of how he went about doping, as well alleging the complicity of some employees of the OSV.
The latest raids come after years of doping scandals that have plagued the world of winter sports.
In December Austrian prosecutors announced that members of Russia’s biathlon team were being investigated over alleged doping offences at the 2017 World Championships.
Shortly before the start of that same competition in 2017, Austrian police raided the hotel where the Kazakh national team had been staying and seized several doping-related materials.
The former head of the International Biathlon Union, as well as the former general secretary, are facing accusations that they helped cover up Russian doping in the sport.
Gandler admitted that Wednesday’s raids brought back bad memories, 13 years after Austria’s Nordic ski team was shaken by a doping scandal during the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
In that case Italian police had seized doping materials in Austrian athletes’ chalets and Gandler himself was among the athletes and coaches barred from the sport as a result.
However, he was cleared in 2009 and allowed to become a coach for the national team once again.
The scandal, in one of Austria’s most prominent winter sport disciplines, prompted a toughening of the country’s anti-doping legislation.--AFP