McLaren dubbed Russia’s program the “disappearing positive methodology” in the report, which was released Monday by WADA. He did not include a recommendation for punishment in the report and urged the International Olympic Committee and others to absorb the information and act upon it as they wish.
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In his statement, whistle-blower Rodchenkov alleged that he assisted in doctoring urine samples provided by Russian athletes during overnight shifts at the Sochi Games.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended officials named in the World Anti-Doping Agency report into systematic sports doping in Russia, but warned that the country should not be sidelined from the Olympics for political reasons.
He went on to describe two separate systems designed not to register a positive doping test, one for “normal” operations out of the Russian national anti-doping laboratories in Moscow, and another able to hoodwink the worldwide officials also present for doping tests during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Last week, Bach indicated that a total ban on Russian Federation competing in Rio was unlikely, saying: “It is obvious you can not sanction a badminton player for an infringement of the rules by an official or a lab director at the Winter Games”.
U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement that the 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”.
“Now is the time for the entire sporting community to come together to find a way forward and ensure that the right processes, legislation and safeguards are in place to protect the rights of all athletes to clean, fair and honest competition”.
The World Anti-Doping Agency investigator, Richard McLaren, says scratches on the bottles were noted by a trained expert’s eye and using a microscope.
McLaren said that his investigation had been able to remove the caps of the urine sample bottles, thought to be impenetrable since they debuted at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, “without any evidence visible to the untrained eye”.
“At a minimum, Russian (Anti-Doping Agency) RUSADA’s return to compliance can not be considered until all persons from the Russian Ministry of Sport and other government departments and ggencies that are implicated by the report, including RUSADA, are dismissed from their roles”, Reedie said.
An investigator looking into Russian doping found the country’s state-directed cheating program resulted in at least 312 falsified results and lasted from 2011 through at least last year’s world swimming championships.
A previous Mutko interview – conducted last September in Zurich for an earlier WADA report of doping cover-ups and corruption in Russian track and field – was “singularly unhelpful”, McLaren said on Monday.
“The information is in the report for others to take, absorb and act on – not for me to make recommendations about”.
“The right to participate at the games can not be stolen from an athlete, who has duly qualified and has not been found guilty of doping”, said Bruno Grandi, president of gymnastics’ global federation.
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WADA does not normally make recommendations for discipline when its rules are broken, but prefers to present evidence to the International Olympic Committee and sports federations for them to decide what should be done.
