IOC IN DENIAL, WADA INEFFECTUAL
Even after damning expose of Russia’s involvement in drugs scandal
THE man who helped expose Russia’s massive doping regime says the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is still in denial over the performance-enhancing drug use and would rather sweep it under the carpet than take meaningful action.
American Bryan Fogel, director of the documentary film Icarus, told Reuters that IOC president Thomas Bach had “betrayed clean athletes the world over by his failure to act decisively” and that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was “crippled by its mandate with no ability to take action.”
Russia repeated its regular denials of Fogel’s accusations that it orchestrated mass doping.
WADA dismissed his comments about its powers and the IOC declined to comment.
Fogel had set out to make a film showing the impact of self-administered performance-enhancing drugs on his amateur cycling efforts, but during the research he was introduced to Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia’s anti-doping programme.
Fogel said that after a few conversations he realised he had stumbled across a story on an entirely different level as Rodchenkov gave details on the depths and complexity of doping in his homeland.
“What he told me, and showed me, was jaw-dropping, astonishing, frightening and worrying,” Fogel told Reuters.
His account, first published in the New York Times, led to the establishment of Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren’s independent report for WADA, which backed up his account.
Rodchenkov fled Russia and is now in hiding in the United States. He said he was in fear of his life after two other senior former Russian anti-doping officials, Nikita Kamayev and Vyacheslav Sinev, died suddenly within weeks of each other in February 2016. Last week a Russian warrant was issued for Rodchenkov’s arrest.
The story of Rodchenkov’s relationship with Fogel and how, in fear of his life, he left his family and friends behind, is documented in the film now available on Netflix.
It gives details of what it says is a massive government doping project, alleging secret service involvement and describing an intricate programme of sampleswapping and bottle-tampering at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Almost 18 months on, however, Fogel is frustrated by what he considers to be a lack of meaningful action, with his main ire directed at the IOC’s failure to ban Russia completely from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“I quickly learned that the IOC would like nothing more than to sweep this under the carpet.
“Even after Richard McLaren’s report proved beyond a reasonable doubt that everything Grigory had said was true and showed the scale of the fraud, the IOC wasn’t willing to acknowledge it,” Fogel said.
The Olympics governing body has, however, previously tried to explain its role in the process, emphasising that McLaren’s report never had the authority to bring anti-doping cases against individual athletes.
Foden was full of praise for McLaren, who worked closely with Rodchenkov during the presentation of his evidence, but said WADA’s structure and the fact that it is 50-per cent funded by the IOC left it powerless.
Fogel cited the fact that 95 of the 96 athletes named by McLaren had been cleared as evidence of WADA and the IOC’s failings but WADA director general Niggli told Reuters that view was a misunderstanding of the situation.
“It is important to keep in focus that McLaren’s mandate was finding out about the system,” he told Reuters.
“He gave us the names but he and we said from day one there probably wouldn’t be enough evidence for an individual anti-doping violation.
Niggli also said WADA had a new set of compliance standards and the sanctions process would soon be carried out by an independent body — probably the Court of Arbitration for Sport and no longer by national bodies or federations. Reuters