New Sochi 2014 Doping Allegations Shock IOC, WADA

(ATR) An IOC spokesperson tells Around the Rings the latest allegations of Russian athletes doping at the Sochi 2014 Olympics are "very detailed and very worrying".

The new allegations come from former Russian anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov who claims to have facilitated a massive doping cover-up during the Sochi 2014 Winter Games in an interview with the New York Times.

WADA director general David Howman tells ATR the details in the article are "shocking, concerning, disturbing - you name it".

"We will have to follow up to have a look at all of this and see what must be done quickly," Howman tells ATR at the WADA Foundation Board meeting in Montreal.

Howman says he is not upset that Rodchenkov did not come clean to WADA officials who conducted the Independent Commission report last November that detailed state-sponsored doping within the Russian Athletics Federation. Rodchenkov was director of RUSADA at the time of the report and was forced to resign shortly after its release, prompting a move to the United States for fear of his safety. Two of Rodchenkov’s former colleagues at RUSADA died unexpectedly in February within weeks of each other.

"It’s a pity that Rodchenkov didn’t talk to the commission when he had the chance but I don’t criticize him for that," Howman says. "I think he had to find himself in a space where he had freedom and safety, and now he’s got that."

Howman hopes Rodchenkov can cooperate with a WADA investigation into his allegations now that he lives in Los Angeles.

"I would hope now the way he’s expressing himself that he would share that with us."

In the article, Rodchenkov describes how he ‘prescribed’ several Russian athletes a three-steroid blend mixed with alcohol in the months prior to the Games and then cooperated with state authorities to switch out the doped urine samples with clean samples taken before the steroid-use began. The samples were switched in the dead of night after Rodchenkov was given the names of Russian athletes who medalled that day and would have their samples retested.

The claims come as a major surprise to the IOC that says all necessary controls to prevent this kind of cheating were put into place at Sochi.

"The laboratory in Sochi was fully accredited by WADA," an IOC spokesperson says. "The IOC also relied on the work of its own international experts in the laboratory – the Games group. Additionally, to safeguard the excellence of the analytical work of the laboratory, 15-20 international experts from 10 WADA-accredited laboratories, including several laboratory directors, supervised the activities of the lab."

The IOC says the quality control systems were in accordance with international regulations and that WADA also had an independent team monitor the laboratory with no reported signs of wrongdoing.

The IOC now seeks WADA’s partnership in getting to the bottom of these allegations.

"We ask the World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate immediately. Based on the findings of a WADA inquiry the IOC will not hesitate to act with its usual policy of zero tolerance for doping and defending the clean athletes."

When asked about Russia’s participation at the Rio 2016 Olympics this August, Howman says it is not WADA’s place to determine.

"That’s a matter for the IOC and the IAAF, not for us," he tells ATR. "I think it’s better for us to leave it at that."

Only Russian track and field athletes are currently suspended from the Games following WADA’s Independent Commission report in November that led to the IAAF suspending the national federation. The latest allegations against Russian athletes could put the country’s reinstatement efforts at risk and could even lead to a harsher penalty by the IOC if Rodchenkov’s claims are true.

Written by Kevin Nutley in Montreal, Quebec.

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