According to the Wada’s independent commission report, which was led by Canadian law professor and sports lawyer Richard McLaren and unveiled at a Toronto news conference, a Moscow laboratory protected Russian athletes during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
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Citing an investigation that found systematic and state-supported cheating by Russia’s athletes during the Sochi Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency says that all Russian athletes and government officials should be barred from this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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.
The McLaren report claims Russia’s sports ministry manipulated its athlete’s urine samples by collecting the real samples and replacing them with clean urine that had been frozen and stored in special banks.
McLaren says Russian Federation set up a covert system, that included spies, to help its athletes get away with doping before, during, and after the Sochi Olympics.
In response, IOC President Thomas Bach said the committee would not hesitate to apply the toughest sanctions possible, calling the program a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games”.
“We would like to highlight our belief that WADA must allow Professor McLaren and his team to continue their investigation, that Russia should be banned from the Rio Olympics, Paralympics, and other global events, and that worldwide federations must enact sanctions so as to protect clean sport”.
The results from this report, which further details other sports’ infractions, may trigger additional governing bodies to do the same.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has recommended that Russia’s entire team is banned from this summer’s Olympic Games. Several national anti-doping organizations, including from Canada and the United States, were awaiting McLaren’s findings to see if they would push for a total ban of the Russian team.
Russian President Vladimir Putin decided on Monday to suspend officials named in the report by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“How could these organisations know in advance the content of the report before it was officially presented?”
He said had “unwavering confidence” in the 103-page report’s findings, having only included items that could be proven “beyond reasonable doubt”.
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Putin went on to say that those names as “direct perpetrators” in the report would be temporarily suspended until the investigation is over. Over the weekend, FINA – the global organization that governs worldwide swimming – released a statement criticizing calls for a Russian ban.
