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VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Austrian triathlete Lisa Huetthaler, who was suspended last October for doping, named names in an interview with the daily Kurier published Friday, as Austria once again faces a doping scandal.
A former European champion at under-23 level, Huetthaler, 25, revealed in the interview that she had obtained banned substances from Stefan Matschiner, the former personal manager of Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl, who was also suspended last year for doping.
She also named a doctor at a Vienna children's hospital, Andreas Zoubek, who has already come under suspicion in recent months for supplying doping substances but has always denied the charges.
Huetthaler, who had until now always rejected doping allegations, said Matschiner sold her EPO (erythropoietin) half a dozen times between 2007 and 2008, as well as testosterone. He also gave her a blood transfusion on one occasion.
'When you're really in it, you have to lie. You have to make lying systematic. It's routine. You lie so much that after a while you don't even really know anymore what's the truth,' Huetthaler said in her interview.
Her revelations come days after the arrest of Walter Mayer, a former Austrian national ski coach, on suspicion of dealing in illegal doping substances, including EPO.
Another cyclist, Christof Kerschbaum, was also arrested but later released, while a Vienna pharmacist suspected of supplying Mayer and Kerschbaum with banned substances is still in custody.
Mayer was already involved in the Austrian cross-country and biathlon doping scandal at the 2006 Turin Olympics.
Huetthaler was handed a two-year suspension by the Austrian national anti-doping agency (NADA) in October after testing positive for EPO.
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