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Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds three lifetime bans

World sports' highest court has dismissed an appeal by three Austrian cross-country skiers against lifetime Olympic bans for their involvement in the doping scandal at the 2006 Turin Games.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the bans by the IOC for Martin Tauber, Johannes Eder and Jurgen Pinter, and reduced the penalty against a fourth skier -- Roland Diethart -- to a four-year ban.

"The sanction imposed on R. Diethart has been commuted in a period of ineligibility to participate in all Olympic Games up to and including the 2010 Olympic Games," the ruling said, noting that Diethart joined the team a day before the police search and was seen as an "assister" and not a "prime mover."

The CAS ruling was dated Jan. 4 and published on the organization's Web site.

Italian police raided the Austrian cross-country and biathlon team lodgings during the Turin Games, seizing a large amount of doping products and equipment.

The raid triggered an investigation that led the IOC to impose lifetime bans on the four athletes. The IOC also fined the Austrian Olympic Committee US$1 million for failing to prevent the blood-doping violations.

Based on evidence seized in Italian police raids, the Austrians were found guilty of possessing prohibited substances and taking part in a doping conspiracy.

CAS said the athletes were guilty of "possession of a prohibited method" and "complicity in anti-doping rules violations."

It was the first time the IOC has disqualified athletes for doping violations without positive tests, and they were the first athletes to be banned for life by the IOC.

Tauber, Eder and Diethart were also suspended for two years by the International Ski Federation and stripped of their results and any prize money won since Feb. 16, 2006.
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