New Report Finds Systemic Russian Olympic Doping

The latest report from the World Anti-Doping Agency, published Friday, lays out proof of systemic doping by Russia from 2011 to 2015, with government employees and athletes across more than 30 sports involved. The anti-doping watchdog had revealed in July that Russia had engaged in a massive urine-swapping operation during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi; but, asked for further evidence, Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren pressed on and produced yet another damning report. According to The New York Times, the new report contains “1,166 pieces of proof, including emails, documents and expert analysis of laboratory and forensic analysis of doping samples.” According to the report, Russia’s dominance at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, 2013 track and field world championships in Moscow, and 2014 Sochi Olympics were all tainted by doping operations. The new report is likely to lead to renewed calls to punish Russia ahead of the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. The report claims that “Over 1,000 Russian athletes can be identified as having benefited from manipulations to conceal positive doping tests.”