New Report Confirms State-Sponsored Doping By Russia At Olympics

The world’s top anti-doping officials called on Monday for Russia to be banned from this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio after an independent investigation led by a Canadian law professor has confirmed evidence of widespread, state-sponsored doping in Russian sports.

New Report Confirms State-Sponsored Doping By Russia At Olympics

Richard McLaren of Western University in London, Ontario released his findings Monday at a news conference in Toronto, stating labs in Moscow and Sochi protected Russian athletes. The findings confirm a Russian whistle-blower’s claims of government-ordered cheating at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

In short, Russia’s deputy minister of sports, who was also a member of Russia’s Olympic Committee, directed employees at Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory of which positive samples to send through and which to retain.

Russia’s national security service, the FSB– the modern-day version of the Soviet Union’s KGB– was also involved.

McLaren stated Russia’s cheating program, which he dubbed the “disappearing positive methodology,” lasted from 2011– shortly after the country’s disappointing performance at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics– to at least last year’s world swimming championships in Kazan, Russia. His timeframe includes the 2013 track and field world championships in Moscow.

McLaren added that out of 577 positive sample screenings, 312 positive results were retained– or labeled “Save” by the lab workers– but that only represented only a small portion of the data that could have been evaluated. More than 240 of the 312 “Saves” came from track and field and wrestling, although other sports involved included swimming, rowing, snowboarding, and table tennis.

According to McLaren’s 97-page report, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the lab at the Sochi Olympics “operated a unique sample swapping methodology” that allowed Russian athletes to compete at the 2014 Winter Games, where the host country topped the award table with 13 gold medals and 33 medals overall.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that his country’s officials named in the report will be temporarily suspended, but demanded more detailed and “objective” information, claiming the report was based on the testimony of only one man (whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov).

In a statement released by the Kremlin, Putin said there was no place for doping in sport, as it represented a threat to the lives and health of the athletes and discredited fair play.

“Today we see a dangerous relapse of politics intruding into sports,” Mr. Putin said in a statement.

The International Olympic Committee, which has the sole authority to ban an entire delegation, called the actions outlined in the report a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport,” and pledged to pursue “the toughest possible sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”

Top Olympic executives were next due to meet in Rio, two days before the Games begin on Aug. 5, but the I.O.C. said Monday it had scheduled a meeting for Tuesday to discuss “provisional measures and sanctions.”

Hours after McLaren presented his report, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended that the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee ban all Russian athletes from the Rio Games.

WADA also said Russian government officials should be denied access to international competitions, including Rio 2016, and the organization also called on world governing bodies of sports implicated in the report to consider action against Russian national bodies.

Other organizations, including the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the United States Anti-Doping agency, had already said they would call for a blanket ban on Russia for the Rio Games if McLaren’s report displayed evidence of a widespread, state-sponsored doping conspiracy. McLaren’s report said it did, and the investigator stated he was “unwaveringly confident in my report.”

Russia’s track and field athletes are already banned from representing their country at the Rio Olympics as part of the fallout from a doping scandal that began late last year when a WADA-commissioned investigation led by Canadian Dick Pound, and including McLaren, uncovered a widespread, state-sponsored doping program in Russia.

Among those not in favor of a full Russian ban was the head of gymnastics — a sport that was not among the 28 with non-reported positives.

“The right to participate at the games cannot be stolen from an athlete, who has duly qualified and has not be found guilty of doping,” said Bruno Grandi, president of gymnastics’ international federation. “Blanket bans have never been and will never be just.”

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 06: Yuliya Zaripova of Russia celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase final on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 6, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Article by Pablo Mena