RUSSIA’S DOPING SCANDAL

This week Russia was given the all-clear to compete in the Rio Olympics, but the athletes in its track-and-field team are still banned

Why have they been banned?

Because investigators for the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada) discovered last year that Russia has been running a vast, state-sponsored doping programme for its athletes thought to date back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In a devastating report, they spelled out the way that Russia’s anti-doping agency – with the help of the FSB (the former KGB) – routinely gave athletes advance notice of tests, bullied doping testers and their families, and deliberately destroyed positive test samples. It didn’t stop at athletics: last week another Wada report, written by Canadian law professor Richard Mclaren, revealed how 22 of the 28 sports to be contested at the Olympics this summer, everything from judo to volleyball, have been involved in doping cover-ups. The report, said Travis Tygart, head of the US AntiDoping Agency, shows “a mind-blowing level of corruption”.

How did the allegations first come to light?

As early as 2009, the IAAF, the ruling body for athletics (see box), had been complaining to Moscow of “the constant difficulties in testing” elite Russian athletes. But the extent of state complicity only came to light in 2014, with a German TV documentary in which Russian whistle-blowers claimed that 99% of Russian athletes used banned substances, and that Russian officials both supplied the drugs and colluded with doping-control officials to cover up failed tests. “How else are we meant to do it?” runner Mariya Savinova, winner of the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics, can be heard saying on a clip recorded on her mobile. “That’s our system – in Russia it only works with pharma.”

Has Russia admitted to the state’s involvement?

No. President Putin now claims all this is part of a Us-inspired plot to discredit Russia. But when the allegations first surfaced, sports minister Vitaly Mutko did go so far as to apologise for the failures of Russia’s anti-doping system, though he blamed them on individual athletes. However, that account was flatly contradicted by Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, director of Russia’s main anti-doping laboratory in Moscow between 2005 and 2015, and now in hiding in the US. He revealed that after Russia’s “abysmal” medal tally at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, when it finished in 11th place, the Russian sports ministry decided on a new, full-scale plan to facilitate – and cover up – doping. And it worked. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian ski resort of Sochi, Russia topped the medal table.

What did the plan involve?

One thing Rodchenkov designed himself was “the Duchess”, a cocktail of steroids and alcohol optimised to avoid detection. (Male athletes took it with Chivas whisky, females with vermouth.) And in order to get round doping tests, it was agreed that all results testing positive should be sent to the deputy sports minister who could then decide which athletes were talented enough to have their results “saved” (i.e. reported as negative) and which ones should have their results “quarantined” – that is, sent on to Wada as positive.

Was the system watertight?

No, it worked less well at more closely monitored international events. That’s why, at the 2014 Winter Olympics, a secret lab was set up in the room next to the sealed-off Wada testing area, and a tiny hole drilled through the adjoining wall. At night, Russian anti-doping officials would then swap the athletes’ tainted urine samples with the clean samples provided before the Games.

Has Russia been alone in doing this?

No. The precedent was set back in the 1970s and 1980s, by East Germany’s communist regime, which forced thousands of athletes to take anabolic steroids, a synthetic version of the male sex hormone testosterone, which enables athletes to train harder, recover faster and build more muscle. Today other countries, notably Kenya and China, are accused of their own doping regimes, but even if such charges prove unfounded, it remains the case that doping, with or without official backing, is now prevalent in athletics as a whole.

What banned substances do the athletes use?

Anabolic steroids – which became a household name after the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for them at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was stripped of his gold medal – are still the most popular. Other commonly used ones include HGH (human growth hormone), which helps build and repair muscle; EPO (erythropoietin), which raises the red blood cell count and increases endurance and power; and stimulants to reduce fatigue. At the same time, there is an ongoing game of cat and mouse with the anti-doping authorities. For example, athletes often use diuretics to mask the presence of other drugs, find excuses to delay taking tests until the performance-enhancing drugs have left their system, and even employ doping experts to show them how best to minimise the chances of getting caught.

In what ways can the system be made more rigorous?

One of the biggest developments in recent years has been the IAAF’S introduction in 2009 of the “Athlete Biological Passport” – an electronic document continuously updated to provide a record of an athlete’s red blood cell count and testosterone level, and designed to detect the effects of banned substances. But athletes are getting around that by “micro-dosing” – taking steroids and EPO in smaller quantities, but more regularly. The performanceenhancing benefits are subtler, but can still mean the difference between winning and losing. “Micro-dosing can take an athlete from 10th place to first place,” says Max Cobb, director of US Biathlon. “But you’re no longer seeing those extraordinary ‘Oh, my God, how did that guy finish two minutes faster’ moments.” And micro-dosing drastically reduces the risk of being caught.