The Austrians' drug tests were negative. The doping probe is just beginning.

Austria's biathlon and cross-country teams may have thought they were in the clear when all 10 doping samples from last weekend's late-night raids came back Friday showing no evidence of banned substances.

But the International Olympic Committee made clear the case is far from closed, saying it will press ahead with a far-reaching probe based on evidence seized by police under Italy's strict anti-doping laws.

The IOC said the test results on the six cross-country skiers and four biathletes were "only one element in what is undoubtedly an affair which goes far wider".

"The IOC takes this affair very seriously and is determined to do everything in its power to bring full clarity to what has happened in the past days," spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "We must look at the bigger picture."

The IOC sent a letter Friday to Raffaele Guariniello, Italy's top anti-doping prosecutor, asking him to pass on the information gathered in the criminal probe. Once the IOC receives that evidence, it will begin disciplinary hearings into the Austrian case, a process that could stretch for weeks or months after the Torino Games.

Under the IOC investigation, athletes could be disqualified retroactively and have their Olympic results annulled. Austrian team officials and coaches also could be sanctioned.

"A positive doping test does not constitute the sole basis for a doping violation," IOC medical chief Arne Ljungqvist said. "There are other types of anti-doping rule violations, such as the mere possession of doping substances."

In addition, the IOC is doing follow-up blood tests on the athletes.

World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound, speaking before the test results were announced, said negative findings wouldn't mean much because anti-doping officials can sanction athletes without positive tests - as occurred in the BALCO steroid scandal in the United States.

"It doesn't matter any more," Pound said. "The non-analytical route is still there. There's enough evidence to say clearly this kind of stuff was going on."

The IOC targeted the Austrians for unannounced tests last Saturday - at the same time that police raided the team's lodgings in Pragelato and San Sicario and seized what they described as blood equipment, syringes and other materials.

Austrian ski federation chief Peter Schroecksnadel said Friday that the police only found a machine to test blood sugar levels and some heart pills, both of which belong to the driver for the cross-country team.

The test results had been delayed for several days and Ljungqvist said the testing took longer than usual because some of the urine samples had been diluted as a result of athletes consuming large quantities of water.

Only urine samples were taken from the athletes. Ljungqvist said it would have been unfair to draw blood samples for detecting blood transfusions, since some of the athletes were due to compete the following day. However, some of the athletes since have been subjected to blood controls and others will be after the games.

The joint IOC-police operation was triggered by the presence of Walter Mayer, a Nordic coach implicated in a blood doping case at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. He was banned by the IOC from the Torino Olympics and 2010 Vancouver Games.

Mayer fled Italy in the wake of the raids, only to crash his car into a police blockade just over the Austrian border and ending up in a psychiatric hospital.

Austrian ski team sports director Markus Gandler called on the IOC to make a statement clearing the 10 athletes, and said the raids hurt Austrian chances in two relays because skiers were deprived of sleep before their events.

Stephen Wilson
AP