WADA was responding to a damning independent report published yesterday that revealed further evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
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Though the report focuses exclusively on the Olympics and does not make any conclusions about the 2018 World Cup, the report does say that the doping case of “at least” one soccer player in Russia’s Premier League was covered up and 11 positive tests for Russian soccer players “were made to disappear”.
McLaren said he was “unwaveringly confident” in his report, and insisted there was no leak, as several sports organizations suggested over the weekend, when draft letters calling for Russia’s ban were leaked to the media.
Russia, which strongly denies any state involvement in doping, is already banned from worldwide athletics by world governing body IAAF because of doping exposed a year ago.
A scathing report outlining a state-sanctioned doping system in Russian Federation prompted immediate calls for the nation’s entire team to be sidelined from the Summer Games, raising the possibility that the Olympics could go on without a sports superpower for the first time since the 1980s.
The report says Mutko’s ministry cooperated with agents from the FSB (successors to the KGB) to infiltrate anti-doping laboratories in Moscow and Sochi and switch out tainted urine samples with clean samples so that chosen athletes could dope with impunity. “I would fully endorse a full Russian team ban”.
Athletes chosen to test negative would have samples labelled as “save” and would be entered into WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) as a negative sample. Meanwhile, Russia’s “disappearing positive methodology” began in 2011, shortly after Russia’s disappointing performance at the Vancouver Olympics.
For Germany’s best-selling Bild “Putin’s state-doping is proven”. If the International Olympic Committee is prepared to do this to Russian Federation… A larger ban would no doubt cause an even bigger ripple.
The Times front page took a similar line: “Russia faces Olympic ban as doping scandal grows”.
But it did not hide its distain for the findings or the Russian former doping official whose allegations sparked the probe.
While McLaren’s report doesn’t make any penalty recommendations, WADA, which commissioned the commissioned the investigation, said the findings warrant a ban.
Rodchenkov said the doping program was “working like a Swiss watch” at Sochi and helped at least 15 Russian medalists avoid doping detection.
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McLaren suggested the numbers could have been higher, but he had only 57 days for his investigation.
