Winter Olympics: There's gold in them there hills, and possibly a lot more besides. At around teatime on Saturday night, the Italian police took the unprecedented step of raiding the Austrian Olympic quarters in a bid to foil a known perpetrator of doping methods.

On what was an odd weekend for the Turin Olympics, the local authorities again demonstrated their zero tolerance for doping transgressions by raiding the Austrian endurance skiing quarters in the villages of Pragelato and Sestriere. At least 15 biathletes and cross-country skiers were required to submit to unannounced doping tests in an investigation that went on past midnight. All athletes were ordered to remain in their rooms and to refrain from using the telephone during the investigation.

Police were acting on information received from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) that Walther Mayer, the disgraced Nordic coach formerly involved with Austria, was staying in the Austrian Olympic camp. Mayer had been banned from the Turin and Vancouver Olympics for performing blood transfusions on athletes in 2002.

"Mr Mayer did not exist for us. He had a ticket for the event but was not a member of our team and had not accreditation," maintained Dr Heinz Jungwirth, the secretary general of the Austrian Olympic Committee.

Jungwirth said that until it had been drawn to their attention, the Austrian NOC had not noticed that Mayer had been staying in the athletes' quarters.

"Those are private accommodations. We understand the police are looking for Walther Mayer and not anybody else. This morning we met with (IOC president) Jacque Rogge and we gave him full support in all the anti-doping measures that the IOC is taking. We think the inspection was very unfair on our athletes, specially the night before a competition."

However, it was acknowledged Mayer is still a trainer for the Austrian Skiing Ferderation. The results of the tests carried out on Saturday night are expected back on Wednesday. The record of cross-country skiing is far from unblemished in terms of Olympic doping tests, with a number of positive tests for EPO. The popularity of blood transfusions has risen after the EPO agent had become more easily detected by authorities.

Dick Pound, the Wada chairman, who earlier in the week offered a damning assessment of the suspension of eight cross-country skiers for a high blood count, had no comment to make yesterday.

The Austrian raid was about the only action the mountain saw in the last 48 hours.

Yesterday at noon, a large crowd made the inglorious trek to San Sicario Fraiteve for the women's Super G race. Although the snows the Turin committee had been praying for swept across the Alpine range over the weekend, they brought heavy fog and a bitterly cold belt with them. And although the race was declared on just before noon, it was cancelled when the Swiss skier Martina Schild lined up at the starting gate.

"You just could not see from one gate to another," she said."

The large crowd gathering in the stand at the base of the course could concur. The dramatic finale of the Super-G slope was all but obscured in the miserable weather. It was very disappointing for the course organisers and the large crowd who had spent the morning bussing to the remote ski resort.

"I am kind of upset by this even though the weather is very bad," said Nadia Styger of Switzerland.

"All my fans from Sattel, my hometown, are out there. And I hope they can come back on Tuesday but most of them work during the week. And we do not even know for certain if the race will be on Tuesday."

The cancellation led to pandemonium on the narrow, winding roads high up in the Alps as the crowds made hasty plans to try to make their way down to other Olympics events.

There were long queues in biting cold and heavy falling snow as the coaches tried to negotiate the narrow terrain.

The only person the hazardous weather favoured was Mr Mayer, whose whereabouts were still a matter of some confusion last night.