Latest investigation on Russian doping scandal reveals sample tampering at London and Sochi Games

Richard McLaren, whose name has become well-known in the international anti-doping community has released the second part of his investigation on the Russian doping scandal today. His in-depth investigation has found 1,000 Russian athletes guilty of violating anti-doping rules. 

This report is the second and final report and was commissioned on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency. His findings this time around focused on the country’s system of tampering with athlete samples, particularly at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games held in Sochi. 

As part of this announcement, McLaren called these latest findings in the Russian doping scandal “a cover-up that operated on an unprecedented scale.”

The first report released by the Canadian lawyer detailed a system of state-sponsored doping. That came out in July. Five months later, this second report is backed up by over 1,100 documents to support his findings. As The Guardian reports, as part of this investigation McLaren also obtained more than 1,000 emails. 

The report (which is 144 pages in length and can be downloaded here), found that 30 sports have been affected by this doping scandal– including athletics– and that Russian authorities have been tampering with athlete samples in the period between 2011 and 2015, meaning this behaviour has deeply affected the results of the 2012 and 2014 Olympic Games held in London and Sochi respectively. 

As found in McLaren’s investigation, Russian anti-doping authorities have been using a system where they administered undetectable steroids to athletes. Tainted samples were also swapped with clean ones. As reported by The Guardian, salt and coffee were added to the clean samples so as to not have them looking too consistent. 

To add further suspicion to Russia’s anti-doping system, McLaren noted that though the country won 82 medals in London, no one was found to have tested positive. 

The IAAF and president Seb Coe, have of course reacted. 

“The IAAF has been at the forefront of anti-doping since 1928 when we were the first international federation to prohibit doping in sport. We will continue to test intelligently, retest smartly, work collaboratively and seek swift justice. The independent Athletics Integrity Unit launching in April 2017 will give us, and clean athletes the world over, the strongest platform possible to deliver this,” said Coe on Friday. 

In a response to this latest chapter of the Russian doping crisis, the IAAF wrote: 

“The IAAF agrees with Prof. McLaren that it is time that this manipulation stops and with this aim has been working in close cooperation with Prof. McLaren’s team and WADA and continues to do so.”

McLaren however is not recommending which course of action or punishment should be enforced. That is up to WADA, the IOC and the IAAF to decide on protocol moving forward but many are unsure whether of not Russia would be fit for the 2018 Games. 

What the IAAF did report, is that 53 per cent of the guilty athletes have already received sanctions. McLaren will make details about culprits of wrongdoing available. The IAAF, WADA and the IOC can make the appropriate decisions at that time. They will also be retesting samples from the Sochi and London Games. 

“The IAAF has a history of comprehensive testing and a strong retesting strategy with samples stored back to 2007. This has allowed us, using information shared by the McLaren team, to pursue an even more specific, intelligence-based retesting programme.”

The IAAF also says that Russian athlete samples up to and including the 2013 World Championships in Moscow are in the process of being reanalyzed.