Doping: Vampires in Austria

There is an interesting article on an American blog about a scandal in Austria which still is pretty much in darkness. A blood bank was discovered in Austria were numerous athletes from all kinds of sports are supposed to have been customers over a number of years. This caused a huge uproar in the German public especially because of the confessions of some high profile cyclists before last year's Tour de France. Although apart from some cyclists names no other athletes were named the German Skiing Federation threatened the public television station ARD which broke the story with a law suit. In this feature for the American blog "Steroid Nation" American Arena writer Jürgen Kalwa, who also writes for German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung looks at how the reputation of one of Germany's best investigative journalists has become stained because of his superiors bowing to the threat of a Sporting Federation which features some of the best known and very successful athletes. Biathlon has become a sporting event watched by millions on the television screen with the German athletes - especially the women's team - winning a lot of races. They even set up events at sold out football stadiums so it is no wonder they are trying to protect their income.