Russian Federation stands accused of “a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games” after an independent WADA-commissioned report said it operated a state-sponsored doping program during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
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The commission, headed by Dr Richard McLaren, has primarily been looking into claims made by the former director of the WADA-accredited laboratory in Moscow, Grigory Rodchenkov, that he doped dozens of athletes, including at least 15 medallists, in the build-up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
It states that The Russian Ministry of Sport “directed, controlled and oversaw” the goings on at the Sochi doping lab, manipulating urine samples.
Before the report’s release, several national anti-doping agencies and athlete groups banded together, preparing to pressure the International Olympic Committee to impose a ban similar to one recently instituted on Russian track and field athletes across all sports in Russia ahead of the Rio Games, which begin on August 5.
Will Russia be banned from the Olympics? He also accused the Russian secret service of providing active assistance with the cover-up, which he says took place before, during and after the Sochi Olympics.
The President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach has called the findings a “shocking and unprecedented attack” on sport.
An independent investigation confirms widespread, state-sponsored doping in Russian sports.
The comments highlight a growing divide in Olympic sports among those who say a ban is the right punishment to maintain integrity and those who claim it would hurt athletes who did not cheat.
“Therefore, the International Olympic Committee will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated”.
Before the report was released, athletes such as Canadian Nordic skier Beckie Scott, the leader of WADA’s athletes committee, already were calling for severe penalties against Russia’s Olympic delegation.
Both had said before the report’s release that a blanket ban on Russian Federation from Rio, which starts August 5, should be considered if the evidence was damning.
The two-month investigation found that doped samples “disappeared” from the anti-doping laboratory in Moscow and that they were swapped with clean samples at the laboratory for Sochi, in moves pushed by officials within the ministry. More than 240 of the 312 “Saves”‘ came from track and field and wrestling, but other sports involved included swimming, rowing, snowboarding – and even table tennis.
A group of Olympic leaders, including IOC members and swimming’s global federation, have released statements suggesting that the draft letters have undermined the credibility of investigator Richard McLaren’s report.
The European Olympic Committee president, Patrick Hickey, slammed reported calls by U.S. and Canadian anti-doping agencies for a blanket ban on the Russian team at the upcoming Olympics in Brazil.
McLaren said the report was “credible and verifiable” and called Rodchenkov “was a credible and truthful person”.
The sovereign state’s track and field team has already been barred from competing in Rio for doping violations after a preliminary report was released last month.
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Russia’s minister of sport told The Times last week that if the allegations of systematic cheating by his administration proved true, WADA bore responsibility for what he called regulatory failures; the agency was in charge of monitoring Russia’s drug-testing lab and anti-doping program. “So much so that Joseph de Pencier, the chief executive of the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations, wrote to the trade group’s members on Friday encouraging them to sign on to this “‘watershed moment’ in clean sport”.
