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IOC fines Austrian Olympic Committee $1 million(Reuters)Updated: 2007-05-24 19:00 VIENNA, May 24 - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) fined the Austrian Olympic Committee $1 million on Thursday 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". 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. 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. 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 in actions related to the fight against doping. |
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