If the report is true, this means that almost half of Russia’s medal haul was won by athletes who cheated.
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Rodchenkov said he did not administer the drugs himself but provided them to the sports ministry.
The IOC said it would “welcome any evidence that will help to determine the truth or otherwise of these allegations”, adding that if wrongdoing is uncovered it “will not hesitate to act decisively to punish those responsible and to defend the clean athletes”. He also explained how he created specific drug cocktails for athletes, masked with alcoholic drinks – whiskey for men, martinis for women. The athletes were ordered to swish the liquid around in their mouths, under the tongue, to absorb the drugs.
The article described how Rodchenko and Russia’s FSB security service had worked to switch out urine samples for dozens of Russian athletes during the Sochi Games, replacing them with clean samples.
Legkov won gold in the men’s 50-kilometer cross-country mass start on the last day of the games and was given his gold medal at the closing ceremony. If any of them won a medal, their urine samples had to be substituted.
Were they to do so, it would cast major doubt on the chances of Russia’s athletes being readmitted in time for the Olympics.
“We are still getting information, we are still meeting people and there still is a month to go”. “Can you imagine how Olympic sport is organised?”
Russian Federation has suggested to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that a foreign specialist take the helm at the now suspended Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said.
“The system of organization of the Olympic Games was completely transparent”, Mutko told TASS. “Everything was under the control of worldwide experts – from taking samples to their analysis”.
But Rodchenkov says otherwise.
Today, two of the athletes accused of doping in the report said the allegations were baseless and didn’t make sense.
Two-time gold medal victor at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Russia’s bobsledder Alexander Zubkov speaks during a press conference on May 13, 2016 in Moscow.
Meanwhile, samples of the tests had been sealed and sent to Lausanne, Switzerland, where International Olympic Committee is based, the official added. Kenya is also alleged to be in breach of anti-doping regulations.
Zubkov and Legkov later threatened to sue Rodchenkov for defamation, with Zubkov calling the accusations are “simply lunacy”.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the claims that the Russian government oversaw a state-sponsored doping program and subsequent cover-up.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has taken the allegations seriously, saying it will investigate the matter. However, Craig Reedie, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, struck a more upbeat note as he insisted he was hopeful Russia’s issues would be addressed.
“I don’t understand why a person like this should be believed, trusted or anything else”, Legkov said in televised comments.
As for Rodchenkov, he resigned and fled to Los Angeles fearing for his safety.
Deputy sports minister, Yuri Nagornykh, called the claims the product of Rodchenko’s “wild fantasy” and suggested the former doping expert was motivated by revenge.
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Rodchenkov laid out the details of the operation over three days of interviews that were arranged by an American filmmaker, Bryan Fogel, who is working on a documentary that involves Rodchenkov.
