Anti-doping officials urge Olympics to consider ban on entire Russia team

Investigator Richard McLaren’s report presents evidence that it says shows Russian officials falsified hundreds of doping tests.

By David Wharton

July 18, 2016 9:35 AM PT

The World Anti-Doping Agency has asked Olympic leaders to consider banning Russia from the upcoming 2016 Summer Games.

The recommendation followed closely after Monday’s release of a 103-page agency report that detailed further evidence of systemic doping among the country’s athletes, coaches and officials.

“Not only does the evidence implicate the Russian Ministry of Sport in running a doping system that’s sole aim was to subvert the doping control process, it also states that there was active participation and assistance of the Federal Security Service and the Center of Sports Preparation of National Teams of Russia,” said Sir Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA.

The International Olympic Committee immediately scheduled a Tuesday teleconference for its executive board to discuss the matter.

“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. “Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”

The WADA investigation, headed by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, presents evidence it says shows that Russian officials falsified at least 312 doping tests from 2011 through last year’s world swimming championships.

Following up on allegations first made by “60 Minutes” and the New York Times last spring, the report supported claims that officials at a Moscow anti-doping lab switched samples so that Russian athletes could avoid testing positive for banned substances.

The original allegations involved the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but the McLaren Report also alleged cheating at the 2013 track world championships in Moscow and the 2015 swimming world championships in Kazan.

Russia’s deputy minister of sports would direct lab workers which positive samples to send through and which to hold back, the report said.

Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said: “The McClaren Report confirms what we have stated previously: the current anti-doping system is broken and urgently requires the attention of everyone interested in protecting clean athletes.”

Over the weekend, some U.S. and Canadian Olympic officials had circulated an email calling for Russia to be excluded from the Rio Games.

Pat Hickey, an influential IOC member from Ireland, initially characterized the email as premature, saying: “My concern is that there seems to have been an attempt to agree an outcome before any evidence has been presented.”

Russia’s track team has already been banned from international competition following an earlier WADA report that found cheating in that program.

“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,” said Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

UPDATES:

9:35 a.m.: This article has been updated with WADA asking Olympic officials to consider banning the entire Russia team from the 2016 Rio Games.

8:45 a.m.: This article has been updated with staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 7:10 a.m.