Scores of Russian drug cheats disgraced 2012
THE 2012 London Olympics was corrupted by Russian drugs cheats on an ‘unprecedented’ scale, a report found.
Nearly 80 athletes were pumped with a ‘cocktail of steroids’ to fool British testers, it was claimed. The Kremlin-backed doping – an ‘institutional conspiracy’ involving 1,000 athletes across more than 30 sports – was laid bare by World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) investigator Richard McLaren.
He said the extent to which Russian athletes wrecked the London Games and conned audiences will ‘probably never be fully established’.
Out of the 78 Russian cheats at the London Games, 15 were medallists, he said. Russia won 24 gold, 26 silver and 32 bronze medals in London, while no Russian athlete failed a drugs test during the event.
Professor McLaren also confirmed that the Russian sports ministry, its national antidoping agency and the FSB intelligence service were all complicit in hijacking sports events between 2011 and 2015.
Evidence shows some samples being diluted with salt or even coffee granules, and provides corroboration of large-scale sample swapping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. The report details how six Russian athletes who won a total of 21 medals at the Sochi Paralympics had their urine samples tampered with. Two female ice hockey players at the Sochi Olympics had samples that contained male DNA.
Eight other samples from the same Games had a salt content that was physiologically impossible in a healthy human.
In a damning indictment, Professor McLaren said the conspiracy started in response to a poor showing at the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was first used to prepare the team for London, refined in response to new anti-doping methods in 2013, and then used at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
He said in London yesterday: ‘The desire to win medals superseded their collective moral and ethical compass and Olympic values of fair play. It is impossible to know how deep and far back this conspiracy goes.
‘Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived.’
The names of the athletes, including 600 summer sports competitors, have been turned over to international federations for them to take disciplinary action.
Professor McLaren’s first report in July led Wada to recommend Russia be excluded from the Rio Games. The International Olympic Committee rejected calls for an outright ban, allowing international federations to decide which Russians competed.
The latest report will put pressure on the IOC – which has two commissions looking into the allegations – to take action ahead of the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Martin Samuel – Pages 118-119