IOC investigates 28 Russian athletes
ZURICH: Twenty-eight Russian athletes who took part in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi face disciplinary proceedings over possible manipulation of their urine samples, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Friday.
The global skiing body (FIS) later announced that it had suspended six Russian cross-country skiers who were among those being investigated and said Russia had pulled out of hosting the final meeting of the sport’s World Cup season.
The moves follow publication earlier this month of the second and final part of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s independent McLaren report into Russian doping.
It found more than 1,000 Russian competitors in more than 30 sports were involved in an institutional conspiracy to conceal positive drug tests over the course of five years..
The IOC said on Friday that in the case of the 28 athletes being investigated, there was “evidence of manipulation of one or more of their urine samples” collected at the 2014 Sochi Games for doping tests.
The IOC added that the 28 cases were not considered positive doping tests although “the manipulation of the samples themselves could lead to an Anti-Doping Rule Violation and sanctions.”
IOC President Thomas Bach said: “This is the immediate follow-up to Professor (Richard) McLaren’s Report.
“The IOC will go beyond the findings of the (McLaren) report by re-analysing all the samples of all the Russian athletes who participated in the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 as well as all those who participated in the Olympic Games London 2012.”
SYSTEMATIC COVER-UP The McLaren report said there was a systematic cover-up, which was refined at the 2012 Olympics, 2013 world athletics championships and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
It said that more than 30 sports were involved in concealing positive doping samples.
Among its findings the report said four Sochi gold medallists had samples with physiologically impossible salt readings, while there was evidence that bottles containing the urine samples of 12 Russian Sochi medallists had been tampered with.