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| The Austrian ski coachWalter Mayer |
An Austrian ski coach whoboltedthe Winter Games following a surpriseanti-doping raidwound up in apsychiatric hospital-- the latest stop on his bizarre flight from Turin, where authorities were still analyzing 100syringesand other material seized from athletes' housing.
Authorities took Walter Mayer into custody Sunday after he crashed his car into a police blockade 15 miles inside Austria's border with Italy. Police later took him to a psychiatric facility, Austria's ski federation president Peter Schroecksnadel told The Associated Press.
"Apparently he's still in there," Schroecksnadel said Monday night. "I believe that there was a danger of suicide -- they had to take him to the hospital."
Mayer was banished from the Olympics overallegationsof blood doping at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. He resurfaced with the team in Turin, triggering police raids late Saturday -- the first-ever doping sweep by police on athletes competing at the games.
Against the backdrop of the most stringent drug controls in Winter Games history, local authorities seized the syringes and 30 packages ofantidepressants and asthma medication, Italian prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello told Austrian television. One Austrian athlete threw a bag out of a window containing needles and medicines as police swarmed the house, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Schroecksnadel defended the presence of asthma medication, saying as many as five athletes were approved to use it legitimately. He also suggested the materials could be used for innocent purposes, such as injecting vitamins.
"The question is not the number of syringes but what was in them," he said.
Mayer left the Austrianbiathlon and cross countryteam base in the Italian Alps sometime before or during the overnight raids. He made it back to his native Austria, driving at least 250 miles before he stopped on the side of the road, reportedly to take a nap.
When police officers arrived, Mayer sped away, striking and slightly injuring an officer, police said. Authorities parked an empty police vehicle across the highway as a roadblock, and Mayer slammed into the squad car, totaling both vehicles. He sustained minor injuries.
Police said Mayer refused to take ablood-alcoholtest, which an officer requested after Mayer allegedly showed signs of being intoxicated.
Mayer could be charged with evading arrest and causing bodily harm to a police officer, Kranz said. Italian authorities would not seek Mayer's arrest, though they were investigating possible violation of the country's anti-doping laws, said Marcello Maddalena, Turin's chief prosecutor.
During the raids, six skiers and four biathletes were taken for tests by the International Olympic Committee, hours before some were due to compete. The tests were still being analyzed.
Turin's chief prosecutor, Marcello Maddalena, confirmed Monday that Mayer was under investigation for possible violation of Italy's anti-doping laws, which treats doping as a criminal offense. But Maddalena said authorities would not seek Mayer's arrest.
Schroecksnadel confirmed that two biathletes -- Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann -- were suspended from the team for leaving Turin before the conclusion of the games. Both had finished their events, although Rottmann was available for a relay team.
World Anti-Doping Agency officers recently learned of Mayer's presence at the Olympics and notified the IOC, which in turn tipped off Italian police. The raids signaled a new level of cooperation between Olympic officials and law enforcement authorities in tracking down suspected drug cheats.
(Agencies)
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Updated: 2006-02-21 11:14
