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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Austrian doping

  • More fallout from Wednesday’s Anti-Doping Arrest In Seefeld; Nystad Steps Down

    More fallout from Wednesday’s Anti-Doping Arrest In Seefeld; Nystad Steps Down

    A screenshot from a video posted to Twitter of Austrian cross-country athlete Maz Hauke during his arrest on Wednesday. Hauke can be seen in the video receiving a blood transfusion. (Photo: @yohanroblin twitter screenshot)

     

    Overnight a video was leaked of Austria’s Max Hauke as he was arrested during a police raid conducted earlier this week. Hauke is seen in the video receiving a blood transfusion. The police officer who provided the video to the media is now under investigation by Austrian authorities.

    On Wednesday, Hauke was one of five cross-country athletes arrested in Seefeld as part of a widespread anti-doping sting. Along with Hauke, Austrian teammate Dominik Baldauf, Estonians Karle Tammjärve and Andreas Veerpalu, and  Kazakh Alexey Poltoranin were arrested.

    The release of the video featuring Hauke prompted Austrian cross-country coach Trond Nystad to resign effective on Sunday after the conclusion of the World Championships. Norwegian tabloid VG first reported the news of Nystad’s departure. The forty-eight-year-old Nystad is Norwegian but has been coaching the Austrian cross country team for several years.

    “The two boys have done something completely illegal,” Nystad said according to a translation of the VG article. “When there are people who are kidding with such things, I have no desire to work with the Austrian ski club anymore. It was not difficult. It was a shock. One thing is to hear about things that have happened. Suddenly watching the video of it made me sad. I just got even sadder and upset.”

    Nystad became the head of Norway’s men’s cross-country program in 2011. Nystad, also a former U.S. Ski Team Head Coach, took the Austrian coaching position in 2016 after resigning from Norway’s team

    On Thursday, the morning of the women’s 4 x 5 k relay, Nystad conducted an interview with British Eurosport in which he denied any knowledge of Hauke’s and Baldauf’s doping.

     

  • Arrests in Seefeld as Part of a Coordinated Anti-Doping Sting (Updated)

    Arrests in Seefeld as Part of a Coordinated Anti-Doping Sting (Updated)

    Dominik Baldauf und Max Hauke paired in the men’s team sprint at the 2019 World Championships in Seefeld, Austria. (Photo: screenshot tt.com)

    At a news conference in Innsbruck, Austria today, the Federal Criminal Police Office (the equivalent of the FBI in Austria) clarified that several athletes had been arrested for doping.

    This remains a developing story. However, Tiroler Tageszeitung reports that Austrian cross-country skiers Dominik Baldauf and Maz Hauke were arrested for “blood doping”. Austrian police claimed a Kazakh and two Estonian athletes were also arrested.

    Baldauf and Hauke were paired in the men’s team sprint at the 2019 World Championships where they placed sixth overall. 

    “It has turned out that in several places athletes have been caught in illicit methods or during doping,” said Markus Gandler, head of Austria’s cross-country and biathlon programs and himself a former cross-country athlete. “Unfortunately, that affects me, two athletes of us are there. They have been arrested, Baldauf and Hauke. They are gone, I have not seen them.”

    Back in 2007, several Austrian biathletes and cross-country skiers were declared “permanently ineligible” from future Olympic sport for doping violations. And in 2014, Johannes Dürr, another Austrian cross-country skier, admitted to systematic blood doping. 

    Listed as Did Not Start (DNS) on the official results from today’s 15 k classic race were Estonians Karle Tammjärve and Andreas Veerpalu along with Kazakh classic ski specialist Alexey Poltoranin.

    In a translated news report from sportschau.de, Poltoranin’s name is mentioned as one of the possible athletes taken into custody. Poltoranin is a two-time World Championship bronze medalist. The Estonian news site sport.delfi.ee confirms that Tammjärve and Veerpalu were the two Estonians arrested.  

    According to the translated news report in Tiroler Tageszeitung, Dieter Csefan of the Federal Criminal Police Office stated at the press conference that one of the athletes was arrested with a “blood transfusion in his arm”.

    A physician from Erfurt, Germany was also arrested as part of the sting. According to reports, Austrian authorities have coordinated with police in Germany with the anti-doping investigation.

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    The sportschau.de article notes the lab in Erfurt was seized with “doping preparations, blood bags, blood transfusions, and a centrifuge”. The translated report states that Dr. Mark Schmidt, a German physician who worked for the German cycling team Gerolsteiner, is involved with the doping ring. Schmidt has been accused of helping athletes dope in the past.

    -Chelsea Little contributed 

    This story will be updated as it develops.