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Austrian coach says he wanted to kill himself

The disgraced Austrian ski coach who ignited a doping scandal at the Turin Games insisted he had no medical equipment and said he was so "shattered" by the episode that he tried to kill himself by crashing into a police roadblock.

"I was completely shattered, I couldn't think clearly. When something like that happens to you, you are in an extraordinary mental situation. I wanted to take my own life, because my world had been destroyed. I wanted to end my life with the car," Mayer told an Austrian weekly news magazine.

Mayer's presence among Austria's biathletes and cross-country skiers at the Olympics set off police raids and intense scrutiny from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). But Mayer -- banned from the Olympics for links to blood doping in 2002 -- insisted he was on a personal trip to watch his team compete in the Olympics.

IOC medical officials met with Italian prosecutors on Wednesday in Turin to discuss the Austrian scandal and another doping case at the Olympics: that of Russian biathlon star Olga Pyleva, stripped of her silver medal last week for using a banned stimulant.

Meanwhile, the Olympic drug-testing lab was still analyzing samples taken from 10 Austrian biathletes and cross-country skiers in last weekend's raids on athletes' housing. IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the results should be known by the end of the games on Sunday.

The head of the Austrian ski federation confirmed that two athletes admitted they "may have used illegal methods" at the Winter Games. They have since been dropped from the team for bolting early after the unprecedented sweep.

Police seized unlabeled drugs, a blood transfusion machine and dozens of syringes in the surprise raids late on Saturday. Investigators said they later found more syringes in Mayer's rented living quarters, two days after he left the area.

The Austrian Olympic Committee announced on Wednesday it had formed a commission to investigate the doping scandal, warning it had to move quickly to avoid punishment for one of the leading Winter Games nations -- including a possible ban.
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