By Albert Otti Feb 9, 2010, 11:12 GMT
Vienna - The signal could not have been clearer. In a display of Austria's anti-doping efforts, the Olympic team is led by Hans Holdhaus, the country's top expert on this subject.
Since the doping scandal among Austria's Nordic skiing team at the Turin Olympics in 2006, the government and sports associations has instituted a series of new laws and measures to crack down on illegal performance-boosting methods.
Holdhaus denied that his expertise was the reason for choosing him as the mission chief for the team that includes some 80 athletes, in addition to serving as Austria's anti-doping commissioner in Vancouver.
'It think it is pure coincidence,' he told the German Press Agency dpa shortly before leaving Vienna. He pointed instead to his experience of having been deputy chief in five previous games.
However, Austrian Olympic Committee chief Karl Stoss told the daily Der Standard: 'We have to send as many signals as possible, showing we take this seriously.'
Holdhaus, 54, is a sports scientist practising in the field of performance diagnostics, helping Olympic athletes to improve their results in an institute he leads near Vienna.
The expert also developed Austria's first anti-doping strategy for the government in the 1980s and currently serves in the ethics commission of the national doping watchdog agency.
He entered the media spotlight after the 2006 Olympics, when he openly criticized national sports officials for the events in Turin, where equipment had been found that can be used for blood doping.
Holdhaus, who had not been in Turin, said at the time that the skiing federation must have known about the methods used by its athletes.
Although he did not defend any athletes banned after Turin, Holdhaus also said Austria's scandal should be put in perspective. 'It is absolute nonsense to say that this is a country of dopers. Austria has the same amount of doping as Germany, Switzerland or others.'
But despite Austria's best efforts, the Turin scandal has a way of coming back to haunt the country.
Disgraced Nordic coach Walter Mayer gave a provocative interview published last week in which he said he might visit the Olympics despite his ban, and despite the fact that his presence in Turin triggered the raid on the Nordic team's quarters.
In the interview with Sportwoche magazine, he called International Olympic Committee vice president Thomas Bach 'Hitler's last General.'
However, he suggested in a second interview with the same weekly this week that he would not go after all in order not to create trouble and disturb Austria's athletes.
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