TALLINN, Estonia (AP) Prosecutors in Estonia say they have opened criminal proceedings against a veteran ski coach linked to a doping ring.
Mati Alaver, who has coached elite-level cross-country skiers for four decades, is suspected of persuading skiers to use performance-enhancing drugs.
The case comes after Austrian police arrested five skiers, two of them Estonians, at the Nordic skiing world championships. Another Estonian skier, three-time Olympian Algo Karp, told the Ohtuleht newspaper that he also doped.
The case has caused a scandal in Estonia, where cross-country skiers are star athletes responsible for all of the small Baltic nation’s seven Winter Olympic medals.