Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann are out of the Austria Ski Federation for life. (Getty Images)(ATR) The Austrian Ski Federation says it hopes the lifetime bans handed down to two biathletes and two coaches for blood doping at the 2006 Turin Olympics will discourage other athletes from doping in the future.
"We have to look at our image and that's the reason we can't have such people in the federation," a federation spokesman told Around the Rings.
"We don't want to have any more problems," he said.
On Monday, retired biathletes Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann were kicked out of the federation along with former coaches Emil Hoch and Walter Mayer for their part in the doping scandal.
The federation spokesman said the decision was based on the results of its disciplinary commission report, which confirmed thatItalian police raided the Austrian biathlon team during the Turin Olympics on a tip that Walter Mayer, banned from the Games due to a doping scandal in Salt Lake, was with the Austrian athletes. (Getty Images)Perner and Rottmann had engaged in blood doping in Turin. The report also said Mayer and Hoch were involved.
In April, Perner and Rottmann were among six Austrian athletes banned for life from the Olympics by the IOC as part of the heaviest anti-doping sanctions handed down in its history. The Austrian Olympic Committee was also fined $1 million over its role in the scandal.
However, the ski federation's disciplinary commission concluded that the four Austrian cross-country skiers handed lifetime bans by the IOC had not engaged in blood doping.
It said Christoph Sumann, Daniel Mesotitsch, Ludwig Gredler and Juergen Pinter did not take part in any doping practices found to have been organized at an apartment shared by all six in Turin during the 2006 Games.
The cross-country skiers remain hopeful their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport will overturn their Olympic bans.
The federation spokesman said he expected a CAS decision as early as September. The disciplinary commission's report will now be sent to the IOC and the International Ski Federation.
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