Russia threatened with Rio Olympic ban over ‘deep-rooted’ drug cheating
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2015-11-26 11:37:06
Russia’s athletes were threatened with a ban from next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after investigators found evidence of systematic doping and cover-ups by Russian authorities.
An independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency accused Russia of a “deeply rooted culture of cheating”. It called for it to be suspended from competitions until it mended its ways.
The commission said the London 2012 Olympic Games had been “effectively sabotaged” by cheating Russian athletes. It said an anti-doping laboratory in Moscow had destroyed more than 1,400 samples to foil investigators.
It also found that Russia’s security service, the FSB, had “actively imposed an atmosphere of intimidation on laboratory process and staff”.
“It is worse than we thought,” said Richard Pound, the former vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, who led the commission. Unless Russia immediately began “remedial” work, “the outcome may be that there are no Russian track and field athletes in Rio”.
Russian politicians and officials criticised the report. Svetlana Zhurova, deputy head of the Duma’s foreign relations committee, said banning Russian athletes would be “illegal”.
Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said: “We need time to properly digest and understand the detailed findings.”
The IAAF was also censured for covering up drug tests. But details were redacted because of a criminal probe into Lamine Diack, former president. He was arrested last week on suspicion of taking “more than ￠1m” to cover up positive drugs tests.