Wada: ‘Deeply rooted culture of cheating’ among Russian athletes
An international anti-doping commission recommends on Monday that Russia’s Athletics Federation be banned from the sport over widespread doping offences – a move that could see the powerhouse excluded from next year’s Rio Olympics
Top Russian athletes have for years participated in a systemic doping regime involving bribery, extortion, and destruction of evidence, according to an international anti-doping agency report released on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The report released by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which investigated allegations made in a German documentary in December last year, recommended Russia’s banishment from international athletics competitions like the Olympics.
The information in Wada’s Independent Commission Report is alarming. We need time to properly digest and understand the detailed findings
The report found a “deeply rooted culture of cheating” in Russia’s track and field programme and “documented cases where athletes who did not want to participate in ‘the programme’ were informed they would not be considered as part of the federation’s national team for competition”.
Russian doctors and laboratory personnel were also implicated in covering up test results in exchange for money. Investigators concluded Moscow lab officials destroyed more than 1,400 samples after they learned they were the subject of the inquiry.