updated 9:23 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Eight gold medals, 16 overall.

If ever there was a time for Austria to revel in Olympic glory, this is its moment.

Instead, the cloud of a doping scandal — the bizarre behavior of a banned coach, late-night raids on athletes’ lodgings and seized syringes — has overshadowed the athletes’ burst of success at the Turin Games.

Understandably, Austria’s winners were elated this week when success grabbed the headlines from scandal — at least for a while.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Felix Gottwald, who won gold Tuesday with a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the Nordic combined large hill sprint. “When I saw the medal count and we had seven golds and we were one behind the Germans, it was amazing. Now we have one more. It’s an unbelievable games for Austria. We’re a really big sports nation and I’m really happy we have so many good athletes.”

It was his second gold here; he also was a member of Austria’s winning foursome in the large hill team event.

“This makes me extremely happy,” Benjamin Raich said after taking the gold in the men’s giant slalom. “The Olympic victory was my greatest goal.”

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Making the victory even sweeter, teammate Hermann Maier was just .16 second behind to grab the bronze.

On a different slope, Thomas Morgenstern and Andreas Kofler carried their success over from the large hill competition, leading Austria to the Olympic gold medal Monday in the ski jumping team event.

And Michaela Dorfmeister won the women’s super-G — she also won the downhill last week — by crossing the finish line in 1:32.47, edging Croatia’s Janica Kostelic by .27 seconds.

Again, an Austrian — Alexandra Meissnitzer — was there to collect the bronze.

“I’m flying like an angel,” Dorfmeister said. “I go home from these Olympics with two medals and they are both gold. It’s unbelievable.”

With its four golds Monday and Tuesday, Austria was one behind Germany for most golds won. Its 16 medals overall was fourth, behind the Germans with 21, and the U.S. and Norway with 18.

The most golds Austria had won in a previous Winter Games was six in Albertville in 1992. Its best showing in a Summer Games was five golds in Berlin in 1936.

But as the country basked in its most golden Winter Olympics, Austrian athletes were sharing the spotlight with the bizarre story of Walter Mayer, a ski coach who had been banned for his association with blood doping.

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Acting on a tip that Mayer was with Austria’s Nordic team, authorities carried out an unprecedented series of late-night raids at the lodgings of Austrian officials and athletes over the weekend. Mayer hastily left the games, was caught at an Austrian police roadblock, tried to escape authorities and then was admitted to a psychiatric clinic.

“It’s terrible that there’s a hunt going on after this one person,” Maier told Austrian television. “He’s been chased like Osama bin Laden.”

The raids were humiliating for the team.

Italian authorities seized 100 syringes and 30 packages of antidepressants and asthma medication, local prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello told Austrian television. One Austrian athlete threw a bag out of a window containing needles and medicines, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Not surprisingly, Austria’s biathletes, who were subjected to the searches, finished dead last in the 16-team men’s cross-country relay race Sunday.

And there were still more developments.

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Two athletes confessed to a team official that they “may have used illegal methods” at the Turin Games. It was revealed that evidence seized in a surprise sweep over the weekend included about 100 syringes, unlabeled drugs and a blood transfusion machine.

And when investigators went to the living quarters of Walter Mayer — whose presence at the Olympics triggered an unprecedented investigation — even more syringes were found.

“It is a saga,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge. “Not even Hollywood could come up with a scenario like it.”

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