Sochi's legacy colored by doping scandals

City rebounding amid post-Olympic boom in tourism.

SOCHI, RUSSIA — Would you drink a sample from the Sochi doping lab?

The building at the center of a Russia doping scandal that rocked the 2014 Winter Olympics now hosts a restaurant celebrating its notoriety amid a tourism boom.

Former lab director Grig- ory Rodchenkov has testified four to covering offered contain doping years alcohol, in up Russian on, the for the same not them, stars cocktails steroids. space and but

named that a doping There’s often after athlete confirms the the B is second guilty. Sample, whether test It’s a sambuca punchy and shot hot of tequila, sauce. Meldonium, for which tennis the star substance Maria Sharapova 2016, now lends tested its positive name to in a mixture of absinthe and

Performance-enhancing? not Red Probably The to Bull. forget unusual not. the menu story is of “so this as

building ... it’s (about) history,” manager Elena Dyatlova told The AP, though she

considers the doping scandals “really unpleasant for Russia.”

Rodchenkov says he served a different kind of cocktail back in 2014. He’s testified he dispensed steroids dissolved in vermouth or whis- key to top Russian athletes

ahead of the Winter Olym- pics in Sochi in a state-backed doping program, then covered up their drug use by swapping tainted samples for clean ones through a hole in the wall of the lab’s supposedly secure storeroom.

Any evidence of that hole after seems eling and nesses. space to long create gone for the other restaurant remod- busiCommittee The International has upheld Olympic Rodchenkov’s testimony despite objections from the Russian government. The IOC banned 43 Russian athletes from the Olympics for life and forced Russia to compete under a neutral flag at next month’s Games in Pyeong- chang, South Korea. Away from the lab, Sochi is a city defined by its Olym- pic legacy. Tourists flock for selfies in front of plaques in the Olym- pic Park bearing the names of 2014 medalists, including those sanctioned by the IOC. Time and the weather have nearly erased some names, just as the IOC has erased 13 Russian medals from its 2014 records. For many visitors, the banned athletes are still champions. “I react very badly to this. I think our athletes shouldn’t be left like this and shouldn’t be competing under a neutral flag,” said Karina Tolmachyova, a lawyer from the industrial city of Sara- tov day spent related Sochi, Yurchenko lion The Deputy the on in on an Russian Sochi. her and benefits. infrastructure the estimated first mayor the says Olympics government skiing city the Sergei $51 is popu- holi- see- and bil- for ing

has lation to 600,000 boomed people by 50 percent since the Olympics as Russians south The rapid are for tempted better growth weather. to is move forcing more local authorities to build schools. Sochi offers skiing in winter and beaches in summer, and Yurchenko says 6.5 million tourists visited last year, around 85 percent of them Russians. “The Olympics was a big boost to the whole development of the city,” he told the AP. “We consider the city’s become practically like new, as if it were built all over again.” That’s certainly true of its tourism attractions, though many older houses still remain. Political turbulence has affected other once-favored destinations, indirectly helping to boost Sochi’s profile.

ARTUR LEBEDEV / AP Visitors drive past the building where the Olympic antidoping laboratory was in Sochi, Russia. It now houses a restaurant and bar that’s cashing in on its Olympic notoriety amid a tourism boom.