That total includes 55 gold medals, as stated by secret data leaked to The Sunday Times in London and German broadcaster ARD/WDR.
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“If it is true there was a spate of deaths in professional cycling, when EPO first appeared during the early 1990s, then I worry there may have been a larger hidden trail of death in athletics”, Ashenden said.
Leading anti-doping experts Robin Parisotto and Michael Ashenden, who were hired to carry out the investigation, found a marked increase in doping and blood transfusions to boost athletic performance in the last decade since 2001.
The database of athletes’ medical information covers the period from 2001 to 2012.
The allegations are likely to overshadow the biennial world athletics championships, which begin in 20 days in Beijing.
“Behind all this is a desire to redistribute medals, take care of this”.
The IAAF told the programme it vehemently disputed the blood values uncovered proved doping.
But the IAAF faced criticism from within athletics.
WADA president Craig Reedie said the new claims would “shake the foundation” of athletes trying to stay clean.
Australian Olympic Committee chairman John Coates described the allegations as ” disturbing” and said the AOC had a zero tolerance policy towards doping.
“Our record for tackling doping stands for itself down through the years”. That said, right now the world championships are right around the corner which begs those in the running world to ask if enough is being done to prevent cheating. An athlete can put themselves at significant health risks using the technique. The files were provided by a whistleblower from within the IAAF, the BBC reports. “But in any case, you can’t base accusations on films”, he said in comments reported by the Tass news agency. That is also being investigated.
Athletics faced a fresh doping scandal Saturday when leaked results from 12,000 blood tests taken from 5,000 competitors allegedly demonstrated instances of cheating and “a shameful betrayal” of clean athletes. Mo Farah’s samples were not seen as suspicious. The claims were strenuously denied by the Russian authorities.
The Sunday newspaper said the athlete had sworn on the lives of loved ones that they had never blood-doped.
“With anabolics, I have stiff muscles”. It’s hard but it’s OK.
The matter has inevitably been brought to the attention of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its representative expressed their shock at hearing the news before reiterating that they would be doing everything possible to get to the bottom of this crisis.
He said: “I know that the IAAF takes these allegations extremely seriously and it will issue a robust and detailed response to them and continue to work closely, as it has always done, with WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency]”. The commission is expected to report back to WADA’s president on that matter by the end of the year.
A previous ARD documentary, televised in December 2014, had placed the spotlight on the Russian track and field program, with claims of systematic doping and ineffective scrutiny by the IAAF.
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The news was revealed as global sports leaders were meeting in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
