McLaren said the ploy was used by Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory to avoid doped Russian athletes being detected.
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In a statement distributed today, Putin said all officials named in the report would be suspended pending a thorough investigation in Russian Federation.
Clean urine samples were transported secretly by the FSB from a Moscow laboratory to a base in Sochi where they could be swapped with the tainted samples, McLaren said. The report confirmed previous whisperings that the Russian government was involved with the coordination and execution of doping during the Sochi Games, but it also included another tidbit: The doping operation had been going on “before and after” the Games, as well.
Following up on allegations first made by “60 Minutes” and the New York Times last spring, the report supported claims that officials at a Moscow anti-doping lab switched samples so that Russian athletes could avoid testing positive for banned substances.
In releasing their findings, the World-Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, called for Russian athletes to be banned from the Rio Olympics next month – but the report also drew attention to the next big event Russia will be hosting: the World Cup in 2018.
“The scale of what was happening requires Russian Federation be banned from the Olympics and Paralympics”, said British IOC athletes commission member Adam Pengilly.
An investigator looking into Russian doping found the country’s state-directed cheating program resulted in no fewer than 312 positive results that were withheld, covering 28 sports and lasting from 2011 through at least last year’s world swimming championships.
However, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated last week that he was reluctant to see athletes from one sport punished for the crimes of those, or officials, from another.
U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun released a statement on Monday saying that the new report “confirms what we have stated previously: the current anti-doping system is broken and urgently requires the attention of everyone interested in protecting clean athletes”.
Russia’s track and field athletes are already banned, as are its weightlifters, subject to confirmation of positive dope tests from samples given in 2008 and 2012. Assisting the plan was Russia’s national security service the FSB.
Time was of the essence because the Olympics begin August 5, and decisions about Russia’s participation in Rio must be made.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said those accused in the WADA report would be suspended as during the investigation.
