Times of India: Doping scandal hits Winter Olympics

Times of India
Doping scandal hits Winter Olympics
February 20, 2006

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1420938.cms

TURIN, Feb 20: With the threat of a new doping scandal threatening to overshadow the games, Italy won its third gold and the everpresent Dutch speedskating fans cheered Marianne Timmer to a gold in the women's 1,000 meters.

Italy's gold came from its men's cross country team, which moved up from behind in the 4x10-kilometer relay to beat the Germans and the Swedes.

But it was a race tainted by scandal. The normally competitive Austrians -- kept up late by the police -- finished last.

Carabinieri paramilitary police swooped on Austria's cross-country and biathlon team accommodation overnight in the Italian Alps after blood doping equipment linked to the team's Nordic team coach Walter Mayer was found in Austria.

Here is a better article from Yahoo. This guy is an asshole and I think the team showed incredibly poor judgment letting him in their chalet. This incident stinks.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/news?slug=ap-austria-dopingraids&prov=ap&type=lgns

Blood doping is the process where an athlete spends time training at a high altitude which requires more oxygen in the blood stream. They then store some of their blood for later use. When the time comes for the athlete to compete they have a blood transfusion to add the highly oxygenated blood to their system giving them a higher than normal endurance level.

Doesn't use drugs but will enhance an athlete's performance.