May 25, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 08, 1428

LAUSANNE (Switzerland), May 24: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chiefs on Thursday imposed a record one million dollar sanction on Austria and warned the Austrians that they must get to the bottom of the 2006 Winter Olympic doping scandal.

The Austrian National Olympic Committee was barred from receiving one million dollars in grants or subsidies from the IOC and warned that it must show that internal changes have been implemented by June 30, 2008, the IOC said in a statement.

It is believed to be the biggest financial penalty ever imposed by the IOC, a spokeswoman said. The sanction was approved unanimously by the IOC’s 15 strong executive board, headed by President Jacques Rogge.

Six Austrian cross country skiers and biathletes caught doping at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics were banned for life by an IOC disciplinary commission in April.

The financial sanction also comes just a day after the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) confirmed that four of them had lodged an appeal against their ban.

The IOC underlined that its disciplinary investigation was continuing in cooperation with Italian authorities “to determine the full parameters of what has been confirmed as collusion, as well as the level of involvement of other persons.”

Advanced medical equipment, used syringes, blood bags and bloody handkerchiefs as well as actual performance enhancing drugs were found in overnight Italian police raids on Austrian team residences in northern Italy during the Winter Olympics in Feb 2006.

In a report to Olympic chiefs, an IOC disciplinary commission said the volume and nature of the material, “as well as the openness of the accommodation” were evidence of “significant collusion within the Austrian team, involving not only the athletes, but also coaches, trainers, management and medical personnel.”

The commission headed by IOC officials Thomas Bach, Denis Oswald and the former pole-vaulter Sergei Bubka, said their ongoing probe would target the Austrian team’s director Markus Gandler, doctor Peter Baumgartl and disgraced ex-coach Walter Mayer, among others.

Apart from breaches of IOC rules, the financial penalty was also motivated by previous warnings and sanctions against the Austrians during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.

“The National Olympic Committee of Austria is suspended from receiving or applying for any grants or subsidies, whether direct or indirect, from the IOC in the amount of one million dollars,” Thursday’s statement said.

—AFP