Golds offer Austrian relief after doping row

Austria's Winter Olympic team, rocked by an extraordinary doping saga, finally had reason to celebrate yesterday when Benjamin Raich and Michaela Dorfmeister stormed to gold on the ski slopes.

Dorfmeister seemed not to realise she had clinched her second gold of the Games in the super-G until silver medallist Janica Kostelic came across to hug her. She then fell to the ground and kissed the snow.

Raich had earlier shot down the men's giant slalom course in Sestriere, the ice crunching beneath his skis, and stormed to the top of a podium for the first time.

Austria, long an Alpine skiing powerhouse, also took the bronze in both races, with Hermann Maier winning his second medal in Turin after taking silver in the men's super-G. Alexandra Meissnitzer's bronze was the 32-year-old's first Olympic medal.

"I have wanted to win an Olympic race since I was a child," said Raich, who fell to the ground in relief when the last skier came past the post and his title was secured.

It was much-needed relief for his countrymen after two days of scandal that included a night-time drugs raid by police, a car crash, an arrest and two Austrian athletes disappearing into the night.

Biathletes Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann were banned from the Turin Games after leaving without telling their national committee and could also be banned from competing at the next Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.

"If they suddenly leave like that they don't seem to be very interested in taking part," Austrian Olympic Committee secretary-general Heinz Jungwirth told Reuters.

Austria's APA news agency quoted Perner as saying that he fled because he was afraid he would be jailed in Italy. He said he had been ordered to strip naked during the raid and had refused to sign a document because it was in Italian.

"For me, it's over," Perner, who won a bronze in the last Olympics, said.

"I don't need to do biathlon ever again."

The biathletes were coached by Walter Mayer, who was banned from the Olympics after a blood doping scandal at the 2002 Games but who visited the Turin team, triggering raids on the Austrian bases and doping tests on their athletes late on Saturday.

In custody

In a bizarre twist reminiscent of the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004 when two athletes wanted for doping tests had a midnight motorbike crash, Mayer was briefly taken into custody in Austria after speeding away from police and smashing into a road block.

An Austrian prosecutor said Mayer had been charged with civil disorder.

Mayer was sacked by the Austrian Olympic Committee on Sunday following the incident with police. The raids and tests on the Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiing team again highlighted a tussle between the IOC and Italian authorities over who would control and rule over doping cases.

"The International Olympic Committee did not know about the raids," a police source said.

"They informed police of their anti-doping tests and police decided to inform the IOC shortly before the raid to coordinate it and to avoid having the athletes finish their anti-doping tests at three in the morning," the source added.

Magistrates in Turin have opened an investigation into Mayer and a police source said one athlete had thrown medical gear, including syringes, out of the window during the raid.

Italy's strict anti-doping law punishes not only athletes caught doping but also those who help them cheat.