Over 1000 Russian athletes involved in doping cover-up

Over 1000 Russian athletes benefitted from a state-sponsored doping programme, which ran from 2011 until 2015, the McLaren report has found.

The second part of a report by Canadian law professor and sports lawyer Richard McLaren claimed that the systematic cover-up was refined at the 2012 London Olympics, the 2013 World Athletics Championships and the 2014 Winter Olympics involving more than 30 sports.

Previously the independent commission found that Russia's Ministry of Sport "directed, controlled and oversaw" the manipulation of samples provide by its athletes and providing further details the report described an "institutional conspiracy" involving Russia's secret service.

"We are now able to confirm a cover up that dates back until at least 2011 and continued after the Sochi Olympic Games. It was a cover up that evolved from uncontrolled chaos to an institutionalised and disciplined medal-winning conspiracy," McLaren told a news conference on Friday.

"It was a cover up an unprecedented scale and the second part of this report shows the evidence that increases the number of athletes involved as well as the scope of the conspiracy and cover up.

"We have evidence revealing that more than 500 positive results were reported as negative, including well-known and elite-level athletes, who had their positive results automatically falsified."

Russia won 24 gold, 26 silver and 32 bronze medals at the London Olympics in 2012 but no Russian athlete tested positive for a banned substance.

However, McLaren believes the "Russian team corrupted the London Games on an unprecedented scale, the extent of which will probably never be fully established."

He said: "The desire to win medals superseded their collective moral and ethical compass and Olympic values of fair play.

"For years international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by the Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived and it is time that this stops."

The new reports also found that two Russian female ice hockey players at the Sochi Games had male urine sample, while the samples of four Russian gold medal winners in Sochi were tampered with.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) believes it is 'time that this manipulation stops' and is prepared to take further action once it has time to examine the full report.

A statement from the sport's governing body said: "The IAAF agrees with Professor McLaren that it is time that this manipulation stops and with this aim has been working in close cooperation with Professor McLaren's team and WADA and continues to do so. Based on the individual athletes that Professor McLaren’s team have shared with us, over half (53%) of the elite athletes have already been sanctioned or are currently undergoing disciplinary proceedings. We will follow up on the rest as soon as the evidence from the IP's investigation is made available to us via WADA.

"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. Russian samples from IAAF World Championships up to and including Moscow 2013 have been, or are in the process of being, reanalysed. At this stage three further samples from Osaka 2007 have been reported as Adverse Analytical Findings and results from Daegu 2011 are due next week.

"In total in 2016, 35 Russian athletes have been sanctioned or charged with an ADRV by the IAAF (not counting the meldonium cases).

IAAF President Sebastian Coe commented: “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.”

eir Sport channels are available across the eir Vision, Sky and Vodafone TV platforms as well as on the eir Sport app. All 6 channels in the eir Sport pack are available for free if you are a residential eir broadband customer.