KEY FINDINGS OF THE 2ND McLAREN REPORT

‘The Russian Olympic team corrupted the London Games 2012 on an unprecedented scale. The desire to win medals superseded their collective moral and ethical compass and Olympic values of fair play.’ An ‘institutionalised conspiracy’ existed between Russian athletes who worked with Ministry of Sport officials and the Federal Security Service in a ‘systematic and centralised cover-up and manipulation’ of doping controls. Between 2011 and 2015, it involved more than 1,000 Russian athletes — including ‘well-known and elite level’ competitors — in 30 summer, winter and Paralympic sports, including football.

LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS

Before London 2012, some Russian athletes were ‘supplemented by a steady program of performanceenhancing drugs’. Officials ensured they were only tested when the drugs were out of their system and used bribes to eradicate positive tests. McLaren found evidence that 78 Russian athletes at London 2012, including 15 medallists, had positive tests hidden by the Moscow laboratory. Dirty samples were swapped with clean urine and then altered by adding salt, sediment, water or coffee granules so they looked like the positive urine samples.

MOSCOW WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2013

The Russian Federal Security Service developed an instrument — ‘no bigger than a pen and similar to what a dentist would use to examine teeth’ — to remove caps from sample bottles without detection. Dirty urine would then be swapped for clean urine, which athletes would collect in baby bottles or Coke bottles. If an athlete could not provide a clean sample, a coach or family member would do it.

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS, 2014

What happened at Sochi has been described as ‘the greatest scandal in sporting history’. ‘A comprehensive strategy was designed to ensure that Russia, as the host country, was able to win as many medals as possible by allowing its athletes to dope up to and in some cases, through the Games.’ Officials knew which athletes would be tested on a particular day. Clean urine was defrosted and swapped with dirty samples, with the bottles passed through a mouse hole at the Sochi lab. Two gold medallists had samples with salt readings that were physiologically impossible. Two female hockey players submitted samples containing male DNA.