IOC fines Austrian Olympic Committee $1 million

VIENNA, May 24 (Reuters) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) fined the Austrian Olympic Committee 1 million dollar today over the Austrian athletes' doping affair at last year's Turin Winter Games.

The IOC said in a statement that the Austrian Olympic Committee was suspended ''from receiving or applying for any grants or subsidies, whether direct or indirect, from the IOC in the amount of 1 million dollar'' .

The IOC also gave the Austrian Olympic Committee until June next year to report on the results of its ongoing internal investigation into the affair and the internal changes it has undertaken.

Austrian Olympic Committee president Leo Wallner claimed today that his organisation had originally been threatened with expulsion from the next two Olympic Games.

''It was only due to the various efforts of the Austrian Olympic Committee, the national government and parliament that this possible expulsion was reduced into a considerable fine from the IOC,'' Wallner said in a statement.

Wallner said the IOC's demands would be the subject of an emergency meeting of the Austrian Olympic Committee's board with the aim of bringing further sanctions against the ski federation.

LIFELONG BANS Among the measures proposed by Wallner today were additional lifelong Olympic bans for the entire support staff of the Austrian cross-country and biathlon teams.

The Austrian Olympic Committee president said he would also demand that the ski federation paid the fine imposed by the IOC.

Ski federation spokesman Jo Schmid said the federation would give its own reaction later today.

Italian police and doping testers raided the Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiing team headquarters in Turin after the appearance of a banned coach, and found blood bags and equipment used for blood doping.

While none of the athletes tested positive, the IOC last month banned six of them from competing in any future Olympics following violations of its anti-doping rules.

A subsequent decision by the Austrian skiing federation to include some of the banned athletes in squads for international competitions other than the Olympic Games further embarrassed the Austrian Olympic Committee and enraged the IOC, which has a zero-tolerance policy for drugs.

The IOC said it would invest the 1 million dollar in actions related to the fight against doping.

The decision against the Austrians comes at a crucial time for the city of Salzburg, which is bidding to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The IOC will decide the host on July 4. South Korea's Pyeongchang and Russia's Sochi are also in the running.

REUTERS TB VC1540