Full truth in doping row ‘impossible to know’

Investigator says malfeasance in Russian sport involves 1,000 athletes and reaches highest levels of governance

LONDON // A report into systematic Russian doping details a wide- ranging “institutional conspiracy” that involved more than 1,000 athletes across more than 30 sports, including evidence corroborating large-scale sample swapping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The conspiracy involved the Russian sports ministry, the national antidoping agency and the FSB intelligence service, World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren said yesterday, providing more details of state involvement in a programme of cheating and cover-ups that ran on an “unprecedented scale” from 2011 to 2015.

“It is impossible to know just how deep and how far back this conspiracy goes,” Mr McLaren said . “For years, international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived. It’s time that this stops.”

Mr McLaren said his conclusions were based on forensic evidence, including DNA analysis which proved that samples were swapped and other tests showed that doping bottles had been opened.

The Canadian law professor’s investigation found that doping bottles of 15 Russian medallists in Sochi were tampered with, including two who won four gold medals. No names were given. Mr McLaren also reported that Russia corrupted the 2012 London Olympics on an “unprecedented scale” but said the full extent will “probably never be fully established”.

No Russian athlete tested positive at the time of the games, but Mr McLaren said the sports ministry gave athletes a “cocktail of steroids ... in order to beat the detection thresholds at the London lab”. He described the Russian doping programme as “a cover-up that evolved over the years from uncontrolled chaos to an institutionalised and disciplined medal-winning strategy and conspiracy”.

The findings confirmed and expanded on much of the evidence contained in Mr McLaren’s first report issued in July.

“Over 1,000 Russian athletes competing in summer, winter and Paralympic sport can be identified as being involved in or benefiting from manipulations to conceal positive doping tests,” he said yesterday.

The names of those athletes, including 600 summer sports competitors, have been turned over to international federations for disciplinary action, he said.

Mr McLaren’s first report led the World Anti-Doping Agency to recommend that Russia be excluded from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The International Olympic Committee rejected calls for an outright ban, however, allowing international sports federations to decide which Russian athletes could compete.

The latest report will put pressure on the IOC to take action ahead of the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Mr McLaren’s findings will be sent to the committee, which has two commissions looking into the allegations. IOC president Thomas Bach has said stiff sanctions will be taken against athletes and officials implicated in doping. He said he favoured lifetime Olympic bans for anyone involved.

Mr McLaren opened his investigation earlier this year after Moscow’s former doping lab director, Grigory Rodchenkov, told The New York Times that he and other officials were involved in an organised doping programme for Russian athletes that covered the London and Sochi Olympics. He detailed how tainted samples were replaced with clean urine through a concealed “mouse hole” in the wall of the Sochi lab. Mr McLaren said he was unfazed by Russian criticism of the report. He said: “I would say read the report.”

His first report set off bitter divisions and infighting in the Olympic movement and those recriminations have dragged on since the Rio Games. He said it was now time to take a unified approach.

“I find it difficult to understand why we’re not on the same team,” he said. “We should all be working together to end doping in sports.”

The conspiracy allegedly involves the Russian sports ministry, the national anti-doping agency and the FSB spy service