More than three months after the Olympics ended, the IOC disqualified a pair of Austrian cross-country skiers and banned two team officials from the next two Winter Games in a blood-doping case from Salt Lake City.
The International Olympic Committee executive board announced the doping sanctions Sunday after a three-month investigation, rejecting the Austrians' claim that the blood treatments were merely for therapeutic reasons.
Marc Mayer and Achim Walcher, who both finished far out of medal contention, were each disqualified from their events and had their results removed from the records.
Mayer finished 25th in the 50-kilometer race and 55th in the 10K pursuit, while Walcher was 38th in the 10K pursuit and 45th in the 30K.
Walter Mayer, the Nordic team coach and Marc Mayer's father who performed the transfusions, and Volker Mueller, the German chiropractor who prescribed the blood treatments, were banned from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and the Games in 2010.
It's the first time the IOC has ever banned an athlete or team official for more than one future Olympics.