The report says 11 positive tests by Russian soccer players were made to disappear in the state-sponsored doping program.
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The Russian president said officials named in the report will be temporarily suspended, but he asked the World Anti Doping agency to back up its claims with more “objective” information.
WADA alleges widespread, organized Russian corruption in the training of its Olympics athletes.
The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is set to convene on Tuesday to discuss the matter, with president Thomas Bach having said the organisation “will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated”.
According to the report, the lab at the Sochi Olympics “operated a unique sample swapping methodology” that allowed Russian athletes to compete at the 2014 Winter Games.
‘Therefore, the International Olympic Committee will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated’.
At present, Russia’s track and field athletes are barred from competing in Rio by the IAAF, but the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) has appealed the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Now, with less than three weeks until the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, officials must decide whether to let Russian athletes participate.
Gazeta.ru said it could mark the start of: “the most hard week in the history of Russian sport”, while the country’s most popular sports website Championat.ru claimed the McLaren report was part of a co-ordinated anti-Russian plot.
McLaren stressed on Monday that “no recommendations” were tied to his report, saying his team had only been charged with investigating the allegations – which first came to light via former Russian anti-doping head Grigory Rodchnkov, who now resides in the US. Assisting the plan was Russia’s national security service – the FSB, the current version of the Soviet Union’s KGB.
The Olympic Games flag and a Russian flag at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
This is the second major investigation by WADA of Russian sports doping within the past two years.
The 2016 Rio Olympics are set to begin on August 5. Over the weekend, FINA – the global organization that governs worldwide swimming – released a statement criticizing calls for a Russian ban. “Furthermore, the Investigation reveals that State oversight and directed control of the Moscow laboratory in processing and covering up urine samples of Russian athletes was applied to all sport disciplines whose urine samples were being analyzed by the Moscow laboratory.” said Reedie.
The full McLaren independent investigations report can be downloaded here.
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Coaches and trainers say they’ve seen first-hand the negative impact doping’s had on athletes who try to win without cheating.
