On Nov. 9, 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released a report implicating Russian athletes, coaches, and various institutions, including the government, in what the New York Times called “the most extensive state-sponsored doping program since the notorious East Germany regime of the 1970s.”
At a news conference in Geneva, Dick Pound, chair of the commission responsible for the report and founder of WADA, told reporters, “It’s worse than we thought.”
In the 323-page document, the commission discovered a pattern of “direct intimidation and interference by the Russian state with the Moscow laboratory operations.” They found that Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko must have known of these operations—as Pound says, “It was not possible for him to be unaware of it.”
Mutko denied knowledge to the WADA inquiry panel, including knowledge of athletes being blackmailed and Russian intelligence agents interfering in lab work.
The laboratory director, Grigory Rodchenkov, was also implicated in destruction of doping samples as evidence for the inquiry.
These allegations first came up in a 2014 German documentary, which drew on accounts from athletes, coaches, and anti-doping officials who said that the Russian government had played a role in obtaining drugs for athletes and covered up positive test results. The documentary recommended that WADA declare the Russian athletics federation non-compliant with the global anti-doping code and suspend them from competition. The doping allegations focused primarily on track and field athletes, which was also the focus of the WADA report that has been compiled over 10 months.
Pound told the Associated Press, “It would be naïve in the extreme to conclude that activities on the scale discovered could have occurred without the explicit or tacit approval of Russian governmental authorities.”
According to CBC, the commission recommended that the International Olympic Committee refuse to accept entries from Russian athletes until the federation has been declared compliant with the global anti-doping code. The IAAF, track and field’s international governing body, has also stated that it would consider sanctions against Russia, including suspension that would result in the ban of Russian track and field athletes from all international competition including the Olympics.
Five Russian runners were recommended for lifetime bans by the commission, including the gold and bronze medal winners in the women’s 800 metres at the 2012 London Olympics.
Richard H. McLaren, one of the members of the commission, told the New York Times, “This level of corruption attacks sport at its core.”
According to the New York Times, Russia had more drug violations than any other country in 2013, responsible for 12 per cent of all known global violations. About a fifth of Russia’s 225 violations involved track and field athletes.
The WADA commission is also examining the role of senior IAAF officials in alleged bribery and extortion involving Russian athletes, CP24 reports. Since the report’s publication, several individuals have faced consequences. French authorities opened a criminal investigation into former IAAF president Lamine Diack, as well as his legal adviser, regarding allegations that he accepted bribes to allow at least six Russian athletes to compete, including in the 2012 Olympics, the New York Times reports. The former director of the medical and antidoping division of the IAAF is also under investigation. Interpol is planning to coordinate an investigation into widespread doping in track and field, according to CBC.
The WADA panel said, “In its considered view, Russia is not the only country, nor the only sport, facing the problem of orchestrated doping,” according to CP24.