Call for Russia Oly ban after probe finds state-run doping – ‘Moscow lab protected doped athletes’

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Canadian law professor Richard McLaren arranges papers after speaking at a news conference to present his findings into allegations of a state-backed doping conspiracy involving the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in Toronto on July 18. (AP)
Canadian law professor Richard McLaren arranges papers after speaking at a news conference to present his findings into allegations of a state-backed doping conspiracy involving the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in Toronto on July 18. (AP)

MONTREAL, July 18, (AFP): The World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) called for Russia to be completely banned from the Rio Olympics and other international sport after an investigation found rampant staterun doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other events. An investigation by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren for WADA found the FSB secret service helped “the state-dictated failsafe system” carried out by the sports ministry and covering 30 sports. “WADA calls on sport movement to deny Russian athletes participation at international competition including Rio until ‘culture change’ achieved,” the international anti-doping agency spokesman Ben Nichols said in a statement on Twitter.

International Olympic Committee members were to hold an emergency telephone conference on Tuesday to decide provisional sanctions over what IOC president Thomas Bach called “a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games.” McLaren’s report said the cover up started in 2010 after Russia’s “abysmal” results at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and continued until 2015 after the Sochi Games. President Vladimir Putin made the Sochi Games a showcase event and more than $50 billion was spent putting it on.

Russia, which had strongly denied any state involvement, is already banned from international athletics by the world body, the IAAF, because of doping exposed last year. There will no be mounting pressure for that to be extended even though Bach and some international federations have said there has to be a way for athletes proved to be clean to compete in Rio.

“The IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated,” Bach said in a statement announcing the IOC conference on Tuesday. McLaren’s report said the Sports Ministry under Vitaly Mutko organised the subterfuge under which tainted urine samples were replaced and kept away from international observers. “The Moscow laboratory operated for the protection of doped Russian athletes within a state-dictated failsafe system,” McLaren said.

“The Sochi laboratory operated a unique sample swapping methodology to enable doped Russian athletes to compete at the Winter Olympic Games,” he added. McLaren did not make any recommendations on sanctions. But the call by WADA is likely to followed up by the United States and Canadian anti-doping agencies. Both had said before the report’s release that a blanket ban on Russia from Rio, which starts August 5, should be considered if the evidence was damning.

“The Ministry of Sport directed, controlled and oversaw the manipulation of athletes’ analytical results or sample swapping and the active participation and assistance of the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service), CSP (Center of Sports Preparation for Russian athletes) and both Moscow and Sochi laboratories,” McLaren said. WADA mandated McLaren to investigate allegations made by former Moscow anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov in May. Rodchenkov is now in hiding in the United States and wanted by Russian authorities. McLaren called the Rodchenkov “a credible and truthful person” despite admitting to concoting doping cocktails for Russian athletes. “I realize there are other aspects of his life that are not appropriate,” McLaren said.

“I didn’t need to get into that.” McLaren dismissed any notion that having less than two months to conduct the investigation or the reluctance of some witnesses to come forward compromised the results. Key findings in Monday’s 96-page report published by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren for the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) into doping at the Sochi 2014 Olympics and other events:

■ “The surprise result of the Sochi investigation was the revelation of the extent of state oversight and directed control of the Moscow laboratory in processing, and covering up urine samples of Russian athletes from virtually all sports before and after the Sochi Games.

■ “The Moscow laboratory operated, for the protection of doped Russian athletes, within a state-dictated failsafe system, described in the report as the Disappearing Positive Methodology.”

■ “The Sochi Laboratory operated a unique sample swapping methodology to enable doped Russian athletes to compete at the Games.”

■ “The Ministry of Sport directed, controlled and oversaw the manipulation of athlete’s analytical results or sample swapping, with the active participation and assistance of the FSB (Russian secret service), CSP, and both Moscow and Sochi Laboratories.”

■ “The Moscow laboratory personnel did not have a choice in whether to be involved in the State directed system.”

■ “The State implemented a simple failsafe strategy. If all the operational precautions to promote and permit doping by Russian athletes proved to have been ineffective for whatever reason, the laboratory provided a failsafe mechanism.”

■ “The State had the ability to transform a positive analytical result into a negative one by ordering that the analytical process of the Moscow Laboratory be altered. The Ministry of Sport, RUSADA and the Russian Federal Security Service (the “FSB”) were all involved in this operation.”

■ “After the completion of the (2013) Moscow (world athletics) championships, the laboratory held a number of positive samples that needed to be swapped by removing the cap and replacing the athlete’s dirty urine before the samples were shipped to another laboratory as instructed by the IAAF.”

■ “The investigation has established the Findings set out in this Report beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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