Controversial sagas become standard Games feature
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-25 17:08

TURIN, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A familiar atmosphere swept through the Turin Winter Olympics this week and it was not the medals, nor the records nor cheers from the fans.

A doping scandal, involving Austrian biathletes and cross-country skiers that dominated the headlines, had eerie similarities with incidents that marked the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

The Austrian drugs affair involving a banned coach who surfaced near the athletes competing at the Games and a subsequent police and IOC doping raid, extended into the second week, containing all the ingredients of an over-the-top Hollywood film.

While the affair and its twists and turns, including Friday's announcement that doping tests on the Austrians proved negative, may be as entertaining as a blockbuster movie, they have shifted considerable media coverage away from the Games themselves.

"Doping cases are things that happen in Olympic Games," International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said days before the doping raids on the Austrian athletes.

"We have to tackle that and we are doing that with great energy."

That energy may be lost to some as what appeared like a straightforward anti-doping rule violation dragged into a week-long affair that has sparked or will spark at least four separate investigations.

WEEK-LONG AFFAIRS

Four years ago, the Salt Lake City Games had their own saga.

French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne triggered a storm of publicity when she admitted to deliberately marking down a Canadian duo to favour their Russian rivals in the pairs competition.

She had said French figure skating federation chief Didier Gailhaguet had forced her to under-mark Jamie Sale and David Pelletier to allow Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze to take the gold.