No explicit recommendations were made in the report on the investigation led by McLaren, a Canadian law professor.
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In Sochi itself, where global observers were scrutinising the drug tests, positive results could not simply be brushed away, so a system of sample-swapping was put in place with the help of the FSB intelligence service, the report said.
The investigation centered on accusations made in the New York Times by whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the under-fire Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory.
The issue of doping has hung over the worldwide athletics scene for years now – including earlier this month, when the US track and field Olympic trials was the scene of an unusual ceremony in which American shot-putter Adam Nelson was awarded a gold medal for his performance in the 2004 games in Athens.
The report that confirms widespread doping in Russian sports ties the scandal to Russia’s sports ministry, headed by Vitaly Mutko.
The WADA response is a further signal Russian Federation could be facing Olympic expulsion when the 15-member IOC executive board discusses the crisis tonight (NZT).
But McLaren, whose report went public Monday, said Russia’s cheating also included the 2013 track world championships in Moscow and the 2015 swimming world championships in Kazan.
IOC President Bach called the report a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games” and said the IOC wouldn’t hesitate to apply the toughest sanctions available against those accused of cheating. That program involved dark-of-night switching of dirty samples with clean ones; it prevented Russian athletes from testing positive. “If the order was a SAVE the laboratory personnel were required to report the sample negative in WADA’s Anti-Doping Management System (‘ADAMS’)”. The head of that global federation, Nenad Lalovic of Serbia, told The Associated Press “we will absolutely follow the decisions of the IOC”.
In the immediate short term, the IOC Executive Board (EB) will convene in a telephone conference on Tuesday to take its first decisions.
An independent inquiry headed by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren alleges a plan to make positive tests in some 30 sports “disappear” was in force in Russian Federation at least from late 2011 to August 2015. Meanwhile, he described tactics he labeled “disappearing positive methodology” that began in 2011, shortly after Russia’s disappointing performance at the Vancouver Olympics.
– Russian athletes from the vast majority of summer and winter Olympic sports benefited from the system. 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.
Tampered-with bottles could only be detected with microscopic examination, but McLaren said the same type of bottle could safely be used at the 2016 Games now that doping officials are aware of the tactic. Several organizations, including the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, have called for a complete ban of the Russian team.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of USADA, called the report proof of a “mind-blowing level of corruption” and urged the global community to come together to ensure that what he called an unprecedented level of criminality never threatens sports again. The full statement is here. Last week, he said if the report was as damning as expected, he would push for such a ban.
Time is crucial because the Olympics begin August 5, and decisions about Russia’s participation in Rio must be made.
Putin went on to say that those names as “direct perpetrators” in the report would be temporarily suspended until the investigation is over.
He insisted there was no leak of his report, as several sports organizations suggested over the weekend, when draft letters calling for Russia’s ban were leaked to the media.
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Investigator Richard McLaren says he’s confident the report was not leaked, and the moves to send the letters were based on nothing more than speculation.
