Austria admits there may be wrongdoing

TURIN, Italy -- The scandal surrounding a disgraced Austrian ski coach deepened Tuesday as team officials said two Olympic athletes may have engaged in "illegal methods" and potentially damaging new details emerged about what was seized in a surprise raid on the team's living quarters.

The saga unfolded as Austrian ski officials faced mounting evidence that banned ski coach Walter Mayer may have brought a major doping scandal upon them.

It was revealed that evidence seized in the weekend raids included unlabeled drugs, a blood transfusion machine and dozens of syringes, including some in Mayer's residence.

And Austrian ski federation president Peter Schroecksnadel said that two athletes who bolted the games after the raids had confessed to a team official that they "may have used illegal methods." He did not elaborate but said the federation was setting up a commission to investigate.

Schroecksnadel also acknowledged that it was "a mistake" for the team to ever have allowed Mayer to coach in a private capacity at the Turin Games, which are taking place against the backdrop of the most rigorous drug controls in Winter Olympic history.

The unprecedented investigation was triggered when Olympic officials found that Mayer was at the games. He was banned from the Olympics for links to blood doping in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

-- AP