WADA Recommends Suspension of Russian Athletics Federation

By Christian Radnedge and Tariq Saleh

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s independent commission has appealed to the IAAF to suspend Russia’s athletics federation and its track and field athletes banned from competition until the country can prove it is clean of doping.

The WADA commission has also recommended that five athletes and five coaches be given lifetime bans.

The commission recommends that WADA immediately declares the Russian federation “non-compliant” with the global anti-doping code.

The report, revealed in Geneva on Monday, recommends that the International Olympic Committee not accept any entries from the Russian federation for the Rio 2016 Olympics until the body has been declared compliant with the code and the suspension has been lifted.

However, WADA’s report also admits that Russia is probably not the only country affected by doping allegations.

The report states: “The IC (Independent Commission) has recommended that WADA withdraw its accreditation of the Moscow laboratory as soon as possible and that its Director be permanently removed from his position.”

The Independent Commission’s Chair Richard Pound’s report into Russian doping also finds “a deeply rooted culture of cheating…at all levels is widespread and of long standing”.

WADA claimed that the London 2012 Olympics were “sabotaged” by the “widespread inaction” against Russian athletes with suspicious doping profiles.

Further statements made in the report said: “The direct interference into the laboratory’s operations by the Russian State significantly undermines the laboratory’s independence.

“Many tests that the laboratory has conducted should be considered highly suspect.

“Assessed as a whole, the IC finds that these investigative reports demonstrate strong corroborating evidence that the Moscow laboratory has been involved in a widespread cover-up of positive doping tests.”

Pound added: “Overwhelming proportions of the allegations made on the ARD programme have been found by the independent commission to be true. I want to congratulate reporter on a fine piece of journalism.”

The IC found that Grigory Rodchenkov was “at the heart of the positive drug test cover up”.

“He not only accepted, but also requested money in order to execute the concealment positive test results, which makes him equally responsible for incidents where coaches or officials extorted athletes even if he was not personally made aware of the extortion,” the report said.

Rodchenkov has admitted to taking bribes and destroying 1,417 doping control samples. 

Speaking on the sanctions for Russian athletes, at a press conference following the release of the report, Pound said: “The outcome may be there are no Russian track and field athletes in Rio.”

READ THE FULL WADA REPORT HERE.

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