Report confirms allegations of widespread Russian doping in several sports

An investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency has confirmed allegations of widespread doping in Russia and revealed a system that goes far beyond the swapping of urine samples provided by doped athletes during the Sochi Olympics.

Termed the Disappearing Positive Methodology by Richard McLaren, who was commissioned by WADA to lead the investigation, the system worked to cover up positive tests from doped Russian athletes from 2011 until August 2015 — a period of time that includes the London and Sochi Olympics, the track and field world championships and the swimming world championships, which Russia hosted in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

The McLaren report, which was released on Monday, sought to investigate allegations of doping during the Sochi Olympics, which were first reported by 60 Minutes and the New York Times in May. The report found that not only were the allegations from Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the Moscow lab, credible and able to be corroborated, but that the system was more widespread than had been reported.

It involved officials from the Russian Ministry of Sport, Center of Sports Preparation of the National Teams of Russia (CSP) and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

According to the report, the Ministry of Sport “directed, controlled and oversaw the manipulation of athlete’s analytical results or sample swapping” with the assistance of both labs and Russian security service.

Brennan: Russia must be kicked out of 2016 Rio Olympics

McLaren said the findings in the report were established beyond a reasonable doubt and could be cross corroborated.

“I am unwaveringly confident in our report,” McLaren said.

Sport and anti-doping leaders expressed shock at the findings, which built on a 2015 independent commission report from WADA which found widespread and state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics.

“The McLaren Report has concluded, beyond a reasonable doubt, a mind-blowing level of corruption within both Russian sport and government that goes right to the field of play… and most importantly, our hearts go out to athletes from all over the world who were robbed of their Olympic dreams,” Travis Tygart, CEO of U.S. Anti-Doping, said in a statement.

In a seven-point response to the report – which did not include recommendations from McLaren – WADA called for Russia to be banned from the upcoming Games.

With 18 days to go until the start of the Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee will hold a teleconference for its executive board on Tuesday to discuss “first decisions,” which may include provisional sanctions.

FULL INVESTIGATION: Read the full McLaren report (.pdf)

“The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games,” IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement. “Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”

System of cheating

Shocking as the initial allegations from Rodchenkov were – ones that included swapping out dirty urine for clean urine with the help of the FSB through a hole in the wall of the Sochi lab – McLaren’s report revealed a broader system involving agencies of the state.

The cover-up of positive tests in Sochi was another means to the same end in an established system of subverting doping controls that Russia made to avoid suspicion of international observers.

"Although the IP investigation began with a focus on the Sochi allegations, it became increasingly evident that a much wider investigative scope beyond Sochi was required," the report said. "The collected evidence assessed and corroborated through the course of this investigation has uncovered a simple and effective system operated to conceal Russian athletes' PED use in order to allow them to compete at national and international competitions."

Among the report’s findings:

• The Disappearing Positive Methodology was a system put in place following disappointing results in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. It worked by officials at the Moscow lab notifying a liaison of a positive test result, that person contacting the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to find out the identity of the athlete and then relaying that information to Yuri Nagornykh, the deputy minister of sport. He would then determine which tests to “save,” meaning a positive test would be reported as negative, or “quarantine,” meaning the testing would follow standard protocols. Of those tests reported through this chain of command as positive, 89 percent of those were reported to WADA as negative, the report found. That system remained in place until August 2015 despite the independent commission investigation being launched in January of that year.
• Key Russian officials were involved in that process. The report confirmed Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko was involved in covering up at least one positive test of a soccer player. Natalia Zhelanova, now Mutko’s advisor on anti-doping issues, served as the liaison in that process from 2012-13. And Irina Rodionova, currently the deputy director of the CSP and a staff member for the Russian Olympic Committee during the London and Sochi Games, coordinated the development of a clean urine bank for swapping of samples.
• While it could not confirm how the FSB tampered with sample bottles, McLaren’s report confirmed through expert analysis that bottles had been tampered with during the Sochi Games, as Rodchenkov alleged. The FSB did so again in December 2014 when, faced with an inspection by WADA as it prepared to launch its first investigation, Russian sports officials needed to swap out urine for more recent samples that were reported as negative but would be in danger of testing positive in another lab. Nagornykh decided to call in the “magicians.”
• In conjunction with that lab visit, the previous WADA report had concluded that approximately 1,400 samples had been destroyed despite the agency’s request to preserve all samples. McLaren’s report found that actually around 8,000 of the 10,000 samples at the lab had been destroyed.
• While the previous report focused on doping in Russian athletics, McLaren’s report found the system of covering up positive tests extended across the vast majority of Russian sports. A table from the report shows 29 Olympic sports, both summer and winter, impacted by the system by which the sports ministry worked with the Moscow lab to cover up positive test results. Athletics and weightlifting are the top two, followed by non-Olympic sports and Paralympic sports. The next three on the list are summer events.

Russia's ban in track and field 

The findings build on reporting and investigations that, for the better part of two years, have revealed systemic doping in Russia.

WADA’s independent commission released its report in November, showing state-sponsored doping existed in track and field. It and documentaries from German broadcaster ARD relied on evidence from whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova, an 800-meter runner, and Vitaly Stepanov, her husband and a former Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) employee.

The second part of that WADA independent commission report, released in January, revealed corruption at the highest levels of the International Association of Athletics Federations that included accepting bribes to cover up positive drug tests from Russian athletes.

The IAAF in June extended a ban of Russia’s track and field team, one which would keep it out of the Rio Olympics, making clear a culture of tolerance to doping remains in the country.

A WADA report released earlier in June detailed attempts at obstruction, obfuscation and avoidance of drug testing in the country as recently as May.

Russia and several individual athletes have challenged the ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is set to rule on Thursday.

In banning Russia, the IAAF made a change to its rules that would allow individual athletes to apply for exceptional eligibility to compete provided they could show they had been subject to effective anti-doping systems in other countries and that they had not been tainted by the Russian system.

Stepanova was the first granted such an exception by the IAAF, and she competed in the European Championships earlier this month. 
Long jumper Darya Klishina, who trains in Florida, also received exceptional eligibility. The IAAF previously said it expects only a few athletes to fit the criteria for such an exception. It had received 136 applications from Russian athletes when it announced Klishina’s exemption earlier this month.

To be decided is if those athletes can compete in Rio and whether they would do so as neutral athletes, which the IAAF codified in its rule change, or under the Russian flag, which IOC president Thomas Bach has said would be the case.

The Rio Olympics open Aug. 5.