Russian medallist says claims are ‘lunacy’
MOSCOW Two Russian Olympic gold medallists denied doping Friday, a day after they were named in a newspaper report detailing state-sponsored cheating at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Bobsled champion Alexander Zubkov and crosscountry skier Alexander Legkov were among those accused in a New York Times article of doping by the former head of the Russian national drug-testing laboratory.
“I considering it an accusation not supported by anything,” Zubkov said, adding the article seemed to be “simply lunacy.”
At a news conference in Moscow, Zubkov and Legkov sat on either side of deputy sports minister Yuri Nagornykh, who denied Russia had ever operated a state doping program.
Legkov waved a thick folder of papers, which he said contained the records of all his doping tests in a threeyear period. The sheer number of tests, he claimed, was evidence enough he could not have doped without being caught.
“You’d have to be a complete kamikaze to do that in Russia if you’re an athlete representing our nation.”
The article also brought a strong response from the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman denounced the allegations as “a turncoat’s libel.”
Grigory Rodchenkov, former head of the Russian lab who now lives in Los Angeles, told the Times he was given a spreadsheet of doping athletes by the Sports Ministry ahead of the Games. It allegedly bore the names of 15 athletes who later won medals, including Zubkov and Legkov. The spreadsheet was not published and The Associated Press could not verify it.
Rodchenkov said he then switched out tainted urine samples for clean ones at the doping lab used for the games in Sochi, with help from people he believed to be officers of the Russian security services.
Zubkov and Legkov, who threatened to sue Rodchenkov for defamation, are two of Russia’s most prominent winter sports athletes.
Zubkov carried the Russian flag at the opening ceremony at Sochi and won gold in the two- and fourman bobsled events at the age of 39, becoming one of the oldest pilots to win an Olympic event. Legkov won gold in the men’s 50km cross-country mass start the last day of the Games and was given his gold medal at the closing ceremony.
Nagornykh said there is no way Russia could have manipulated doping samples at the Sochi Games because of foreign observers.
“(Russia) did not have the opportunity to influence in any way the system of doping control procedures, storage and transport,” Nagornykh said.