An incredible video has surfaced exposing Nordic skier Max Hauke midway through a blood transfusion as part of a series of anti-doping raids.
Austrian police busted the cross-country skier at the Nordic skiing world championships with Hauke appearing dejected whilst being filmed sitting down administering the blood transfusion as part of the act of blood doping.
Hauke is a cadet in the Austrian police and is one of five skiers arrested in the Austrian resort of Seefeld.
The video, released by Austrian publication Vorarlberg Online, shows Hauke being asked if anybody else is at home, to which he shakes his head before looking away.
Fellow cross-country Dominik Baldauf has also been arrested, as have three others from Kazakhstan and Estonia.
“Athletes have been caught using unauthorised methods or substances. Unfortunately, it shocks me, two of our athletes are among them," the federation’s sporting director for cross-country skiing and biathlon, Markus Gandler, told the APA news agency.
"They have been taken into custody, Baldauf and Hauke."
The World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed the raids were successfully implemented as part of a large scale operation to tackle doping and use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.
A WADA statement read: “The raids were part of a wider police operation targeting criminals from a number of European countries, and Wada’s intelligence and investigations department has been providing information and other assistance to the authorities in the course of their operation."
Scottish training partner Andrew Young labelled it "disgusting."
"It's not nice," Young told NRK. "It is difficult. There is no room for it in sports and I did not realise that he was doing it.
"It is difficult to describe what you feel after seeing a friend cheating. I don't hate him, but at the same time I don't want him back in the cross-country circuit. You can't come back after you've done that."
