The new scandal further threatens the country’s participation in the Rio Games this summer.
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Olympic champion bobsledder Aleksander Zubkov and skier Aleksander Legkov called Rodchenko’s accusations lies and “nonsense”.
“This is … the defamation of my name in sports, in this world elite, of my achievements during the last 15 years”, Zubkov said.
In a statement to Omnisport, the International Olympic Committee added: “A NADO [national anti-doping organisation] can be non-compliant for a number of reasons, there are now a number of others in this position”. Larry is our main news editor.
It would, at a minimum, make it more hard to prove who the real cheaters were in Sochi, since, presumably, all the urine Rodchenkov wants tested is clean.
“It is essential that we conduct our own internal investigation and provide the most open – and I want to underline – the most open professional cooperation with global anti-doping structures”.
“Cocktails? It’s silly. The sportsmen were under control before, during and after the Olympics”, said Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.
The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) announced that it will immediately look into Russian doping allegations surrounding the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games that have recently been brought to light during a CBS broadcast of 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Deputy sports minister, Yuri Nagornykh, called the claims the product of Rodchenko’s “wild fantasy” and suggested the former doping expert was motivated by revenge.
If the evidence shows the Russian bobsled teams were involved, they could lose their gold medals, which would give Holcomb two silver medals to go with the gold he won in the four-man event in 2010.
The IOC says it is ready to discuss an offer from Moscow’s former anti-doping lab director to retest stored doping samples from the Sochi Olympics with his assistance.
The committee said it “will not hesitate to act with its usual policy of zero tolerance for doping and defending the clean athletes” based on the results of the WADA investigation.
Kenya’s track and field athletes won’t be banned from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro despite serious concerns over the African country’s anti-doping program, the IAAF said Friday. RUSADA said the 52-year-old Kamayev died of a heart attack after skiing, and did not elaborate on the cause of death for Sinev, 58.
Legkov won gold in the men’s 50-kilometre cross-country mass start on the last day of the games and was given his gold medal at the closing ceremony.
Rodchenkov, who fled Russian Federation for Los Angeles after the Olympics, said he was personally mixing steroid cocktails of his own invention for athletes, dissolving them in whiskey for men and vermouth for women.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) stands next to Alexander Zubkov, gold medalist in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh for Russia, during the Closing Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics on February 23, 2014.
