Anti-doping committee investigates cross-country skier Wurm

VIENNA (AP) Anti-doping authorities in Austria have opened proceedings against cross-country skier Harald Wurm and provisionally suspended the two-time Olympian for alleged blood doping.

The Austrian Anti-Doping Legal Committee says Wurm is being suspected of ''the possession and the use of a banned substance, namely cobalt.''

Wurm has been under criminal investigation by Austrian police for four months. He has already been provisionally excluded from all team training and competitions by the Austrian ski federation since November.

The 31-year-old Wurm, who has denied any wrongdoing, was the under-23 world champion in 2006 and competed in the sprint events at the 2006 and 2014 Olympics.

Last year, one of Wurm's teammates, Johannes Duerr, was banned for life by the federation after being kicked out of the 2014 Sochi Games for using EPO.