Disgraced Austrian ski coach Walter Mayer faces criminal proceedings after a dramatic overnight car chase in southern Austria, police reports said on Monday.
The police reports in Austria’s Carinthia province said 48-year-old Mayer faces drunken-driving charges, resisting the police and causing bodily injury to a police officer.
The charges carry a maximum three years in jail. Mayer was detained for a few hours but released in the early hours of Monday.
The incident came 24 hours after Mayer was the target of a police raid at the Turin Winter Olympics on the Austrian biathlon and cross-country ski team.
Police said the Sunday incident began when they found Mayer in his car near the town of Villach, noticed a smell of alcohol and checked his papers.
Suddenly Mayer pushed away a police officer, started his car and raced off towards the small town of Paternion. Police took up the chase and radioed their colleagues.
At Paternion, the police put up a roadblock of two police cars with flashing blue lights. Mayer crashed into the cars unchecked, and suffered a slight head injury. He tried to flee on foot but was caught by police, said the statements.
He refused a blood-alcohol test, which under Austrian law means he is automatically registered as having an illegally high count of 1,6mg per millilitre (the limit is 0,5).
The incident prompted the Austrian ski federation (OESV) to fire him immediately.
”He is no role model. The case is over. We stood by him. We defend our people. But something like this unacceptable. He is sacked immediately,” said OESV boss Peter Schroecksnadel at the Olympics.
Mayer was excluded from the Olympics until 2010 by the International Olympic Committee after blood doping equipment such as syringes and blood bags was found at the team’s quarters at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Two athletes were also banned.
Mayer won a court appeal against a 10-year coaching ban by the ruling ski body FIS and was reinstated as biathlon and cross-country ski coach by the OESV.
He was at the Olympics last week in a private capacity, but became the target of the Italian raid on Saturday because suspicious equipment was found in his house during recent doping tests in Austria by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Based on strict anti-doping laws, Italian authorities have launched criminal investigations against Mayer.
Two biathletes, Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann, were kicked out of the Olympic team after leaving the team without permission. Both athletes reportedly left immediately after the raid for home although they were due to compete at further events. — Sapa-dpa