Skiers’ Test Results May Come by Sunday

International Olympic Committee officials said Wednesday that results from the doping tests of 10 Austrian skiers ought to be known by Sunday, the last day of the Turin Games.

But Giselle Davies, the IOC spokeswoman, did not rule out the possibility the process could carry on beyond then. The process “can take time,” she said.

The IOC’s two top anti-doping officials, Arne Ljungqvist of Sweden, chairman of the IOC medical commission, and Patrick Schamasch, the IOC’s medical director, met Wednesday with Italian judicial authorities. Details of the meeting were not disclosed.

Italian military police searched the Austrian biathlon and cross-country ski team quarters Saturday night near the mountain venues outside Turin, seizing used syringes and other items. Italian authorities are also waiting for forensic tests aimed in part at determining what was in those syringes.

The police raid marked the first time law enforcement authorities in a host nation had executed a doping-related search on athletes’ quarters during the Olympics.

Italian police acted after being tipped by the IOC that Walter Mayer, the Austrian biathlon and cross-country coach, was in Turin -- even though he had been banned from the Olympics through 2010 after blood-doping equipment was found at a Utah house rented by the Austrian Nordic team for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Mayer, 48, was fired after crashing his car Sunday night into an Austrian police roadblock 15 miles across the Italian border. He told an Austrian magazine, in comments reported Wednesday by wire services, that he was trying to kill himself when he crashed into the police cruiser.

He also told the magazine, called NEWS, that he was the victim of a “plot” and could not understand why sports and police authorities targeted Austria’s Nordic skiers at the 2006 Games.

Austrian sports and government officials, concerned that the furor over Mayer and the Nordic team might affect Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, announced the formation Wednesday of an “inquiry commission” designed to “clean house and restore the integrity of Austria’s Olympic team.”

The IOC will select the 2014 site in 2007. Salzburg has been considered a leading candidate among the seven cities in the race.