Austrian Olympic Committee hit with $1million Fine for doping.

The Austrian Olympic Committee was fined $1 million today in connection with the doping scandal at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. The International Olympic Committee decided that the Austrian Olympic committee was accountable for the conduct of its ski federation, as well as for the violation of anti-doping rules by its athletes and support staff at the Turin Olympics.

The AOC also was held responsible for the participation of former Austrian coach Walter Mayer, who was banned from the Turin Olympics after being implicated in blood-doping at the Salt Lake City Games. The IOC said the Austrian committee failed to implement the necessary changes to prevent a repeat of the problems from 2002.

Leo Wallner, Austrian Olympic Committee president has issued a statement accusing the Austrian Ski Federation of a "serious failure." He went on to say that the Ski Federation had compromised the Olympic spirit that the Austrian Olympic Committee would take disciplinary measures against the ski federation for putting "an entire generation of athletes" at risk...The fine will be imposed by way of deductions from IOC grants to Austria.

Salzburg is up against Sochi, Russia, and Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the 2014 Winter Olypics. The IOC is due to make its final decission on July 4th and it is feared that this incident could have serious implications for Salzburg's bid.

The athletes involved, 4 cross-country skiers and 2 biathletes, were issued lifetime Olympic bans last month.

Normally doping violations are based upon positive tests on the athletes themselves but for the first time ever, these punishments were based upon evidence seized by Italian police in raids on the Austrians' living quarters during the Turin Games. They found syringes, needles, blood bags, butterfly valves and bottles of saline as well as devices for measuring hemoglobin levels and determining blood groups. They also found the banned substances hCG and albumin. The raids cam as a result of a tip-off that banned ex-Austrian coach, Walter Mayer was around. Mayer, who was involved in the 2002 doping scandal in Salt Lake, took flight and crashed into a police road block just over the Austrian border.

Although the two biathletes have since retired from the sport, the four cross-country skiers have appealed their bans to the Court of Arbitration.

More