Whistleblower warned his life was in danger

RUSSIAN Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistleblower who exposed the statesponsored doping programme in his country, has called for Russia to be banned from the Olympics amid concerns that the authorities don’t have the stomach to take such action. In a column in yesterday’s New York

Times, the former head of the WADA-accredited testing lab in Moscow also made the chilling claim that he was warned his life was in danger just days before fleeing to America. A friend within the government warned me that Russia was planning my “suicide”,’ he wrote. But Rodchenkov (above) is alarmed by what he sees as a reluctance by both the International Olympic Committee and the World AntiDoping Agency to follow world athletics in taking firm action against the Russians. ‘In November 2015, I escaped Russia determined to tell the world about my country’s doping programme for Olympic athletes,’ said Rodchenkov, who is now part of the witness protection programme in the US. ‘As the former director of Russia’s anti-doping centre, I willingly disclosed indisputable evidence of widespread, state-sanctioned cheating by my country, hoping this would lead to change. But the expectation I once had for meaningful reform is beginning to fade. ‘In recent weeks, news reports have strongly suggested that WADA is trying to find a way to walk away from the findings of its own independent investigator. ‘Of the medals fraudulently earned by Russian athletes at the Sochi Games, not one has been withdrawn by the IOC,’ he said.