“We’re not asking for the worst, and obviously we hope there’s no doping going on by states”, he told the New York Times.
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Less than a month before the start of the Olympic Games in Rio, WADA have recommended that the International Olympic Committee [IOC] and International Paralympic Committee should consider banning all athletes entered by the Russian Olympic Committee for the Games.
But it did not hide its distain for the findings or the Russian former doping official whose allegations sparked the probe.
McLaren said that the report’s key findings proves have been proven “beyond reasonable doubt” and insisted he had “unwavering confidence” in the report.
Rodchenkov, for example, had claimed that the Russian secret service (FSB) had worked out how to open and re-seal the supposedly tamper-proof bottles that are used for storing urine samples so that the contents could be replaced with “clean” urine.
The surprise of this latest report, McLaren wrote, was “the extent of State oversight and directed control of the Moscow Laboratory” to cover up cheating.
Russia’s track team has already been banned from global competition following an earlier WADA report that found cheating in that program.
But McLaren said the cheating in Sochi was a one-shot deal.
Efforts to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics inappropriate – PutinBy Swastika Singh Tuesday 19/07/2016A Gold medalist Russian track team from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“We always want universal inclusion at the Olympic Games, but we can’t be blind to the evidence before us, and if we – as those who cherish the Olympic values – are not preparing for all potential outcomes, then we are not fulfilling our promise to clean athletes.”
With the Rio Games so near, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee will determine any sanctions of the game during a conference call meeting on Tuesday.
Stressing that “doping has no place in sport”, it said that the report’s findings “are based on the testimony of one person”.
The results of a Russian appeal to the court of arbitration for sport in Lausanne will be revealed on Thursday. “Blanket bans have never been and will never be just”.
It was already alleged that the Russian sports ministry, and state-funded anti-doping agency and lab were in on the scam. Eight Russian athlete “A” samples tested positive for Oral Turinabol that had previously found to contain no outside chemicals during testing four years ago.
“The IAAF will of course seek further information on the 139 cases mentioned in the McLaren report and cross reference it with its own data”.
In the short term, the IOC Executive Board (EB) will convene in a telephone conference tomorrow to take its first decisions, which may include provisional measures and sanctions with regard to the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
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And WADA has asked for more funding so McLaren can complete more detailed work after this report, which was delivered in 57 days so it came out before the Summer Games.
