New drugs raid as crash coach held

[bad_meetz_evil]

TORINO, Italy -- Italian anti-doping police said they had discovered " medical equipment useful in their investigations", after a fresh search on rooms used by banned Austrian coach Walter Mayer.

Police searched the Austrian cross-country coaches' base at Pragelato, near Torino, on Monday night.

A police source told Reuters the search unearthed "medical equipment" useful in the investigation into possible doping violations by members of the Austrian Winter Olympics team.

The source said on Tuesday: "Medical equipment was found in the house Walter Mayer was staying in.

It will now be analysed further.

Mayer stayed at the quarters over the weekend.

Authorities took Mayer into custody on 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. "I believe that there was a danger of suicide -- they had to take him to the hospital."

Austrian news agency APA quoted cross-country coach Otto Jung as saying Monday's search took two to three hours.

The agency quoted Austrian Skiing Federation official Markus Gandler as saying: "What they are doing with us here is a scandal."

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Austrian athletes were being treated "like criminals" by Italian authorities. He said he was angered that skiers had been "interrogated for five hours".

But he also said Mayer had no place being with the team at the Games.

"I find it infuriating that someone like Walter Mayer shows up here," Schuessel told state broadcaster ORF.

"Dozens of Austrian athletes have been preparing for their whole lives to reach this summit, and then something like this happens."

But he added: "The team has reacted in the right way by winning four medals on Monday."

Syringes
Authorities were still analyzing 100 syringes and other material seized from athletes' housing in Sunday's overnight raid.

Mayer was banished from the Olympics over allegations of blood doping at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. He resurfaced with the team in Turin, triggering the raids -- 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 of antidepressants 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.

Austria's cross-country relay team came in last out of 16 teams the morning after the raids.

[LionDen]

I find it funny that he actually crashed into the police when trying to get away.