Over 1,000 Russian athletes benefited from conspiracy to conceal doping - McLaren report
Last Updated: 09/12/16 5:02pm
More than 1,000 Russian athletes competing in summer, winter and paralympic sport were involved in or benefited from an "institutional conspiracy" to conceal positive doping tests, according to a WADA report.
The second part of a report by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren provided more details of an elaborate state-sponsored doping scheme operated by Russia.
It said there was a systematic cover-up, which was refined at the 2012 Olympics, 2013 World Athletics Championships and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, and that more than 30 sports, including football, were involved in concealing positive doping samples.
The International Olympic Committee has, since the second part of McLaren's report was issued, that all 254 Russian urine samples from the Sochi Games will be re-tested as well as further re-tests from London 2012.
"We are now able to confirm a cover up that dates back until at least 2011 and continued after the Sochi Olympic Games. It was a cover up that evolved from uncontrolled chaos to an institutionalised and disciplined medal-winning conspiracy," McLaren told a news conference in London on Friday.
"It was a cover up on an unprecedented scale and the second part of this report shows the evidence that increases the number of athletes involved as well as the scope of the conspiracy and cover up.
The Russian team corrupted the London Games on an unprecedented scale, the extent of which will probably never be fully established.
Richard McLaren
"We have evidence revealing that more than 500 positive results were reported as negative, including well-known and elite-level athletes, who had their positive results automatically falsified."
McLaren said Russia won 24 gold, 26 silver and 32 bronze medals at London 2012 and no Russian athlete tested positive.
"Yet the Russian team corrupted the London Games on an unprecedented scale, the extent of which will probably never be fully established," he said.
"The desire to win medals superseded their collective moral and ethical compass and Olympic values of fair play.
"For years international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by the Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived and it is time that this stops."
The report said a urine sample swapping technique used at Sochi became regular practice at the Moscow laboratory that dealt with elite athletes.
It said Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the laboratory, swapped positive urine samples with previously collected clean samples, adding salt and coffee to replicate the consistency of the original samples.
"He [Rodchenkov] altered the clean A samples either by diluting with water, adding salt, sediment or Nescafe granules when needed to match the specific gravity and appearance of the dirty B samples," McLaren said.
The report added that four Sochi gold medallists had samples with physiologically impossible salt readings, while 12 Russian Sochi medallists had evidence of tampering with the bottles containing their urine samples. Two female ice hockey players at Sochi also had samples containing male DNA.
The Russian Sports Ministry has, however, denied that the country had any state-sponsored doping system.
The ministry says it will examine McLaren's report before commenting in detail but that it insists on "the absence of a state program of support for doping sport" and "continues to fight doping with a position of zero tolerance".
The original McLaren report, released in July, was one of two commissioned by WADA which revealed widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian sport.
The July report found Moscow had concealed hundreds of positive doping tests in many sports ahead of the Sochi Games and led to a partial ban of Russian athletes competing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
Although Russian track and field athletes and weightlifters were banned from competing at Rio, the International Olympic Committee rejected a blanket ban and let international sports federations decide which athletes should be eligible to compete.
UK Anti-Doping chief executive Nicole Sapstead has welcomed the publication of the second McLaren report but has also called for additional funding in the fight against doping
She said: "Today's report from Richard McLaren is hugely significant for sport and those who fight to keep it clean. Everyone engaged in sport needs to ensure that the right processes, sanctions and safeguards are in place to protect everyone's right to clean, fair and honest sport.
"Both the McLaren and Pound reports have demonstrated the importance of investigations. They have also highlighted that such investigations take time and require a great deal of financial investment. It is clear that the World Anti-Doping Agency and the national anti-doping organisations around the world must be given the powers and resources they need to carry out investigations.
"In a landscape where anti-doping is woefully underfunded, more money needs to be found to support investigations. The sports, many of which receive considerable income from commercial activities, need to step-up and help anti-doping organisations."
The next step for WADA is that dossiers on the athletes implicated in cover-ups will be handed to the relevant international federations governing the sports in which those athletes compete.
The federations will then decide "whether or not there are sufficient elements to pursue [doping disciplinary cases] or, whether further investigations are required."
