A Russian inquiry has concluded that the whistle-blower who reported an alleged state sponsored doping at the Sochi Olympics personally supplied the drugs.
The Russian government’s investigation unit says athletes were unaware that Grigory Rodchenkov who was the director of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory, had given them substances.
“It was established that Rodchenkov personally supplied the athletes and coaches with medicines whose proven features were not known to them but which later were established to constitute performance-enhancing drugs,” the Investigative Committee of Russia (IC) said.
It added that Rodchenkov destroyed the athletes’ samples and then accused Russia of implementing a state sponsored doping programme.
Russia has always denied the allegations maintaining that Rodchenkov, and not the state, was involved. President Vladimir Putin said the allegations were from “one man with a scandalous reputation”.
In his interview with the New York Times, Mr Rodchenko said doping athletes was part of his job and his laboratory would have stopped receiving funding if he had not done it.
He had previously been investigated in Russia for trafficking in performance-enhancing drugs but said he was not jailed because the Russian authorities had earmarked him to dope athletes at the Sochi Games.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has previously accused Rodchenkov of asking for and accepting bribes and destroying more than 1,400 blood and urine samples.
He fled to the United States in January 2016 after Moscow’s court issued an arrest warrant. The IC investigation also stated that Rodchenkov continued to work on the Moscow’s laboratory’s database remotely.
“Having the access rights to the base and the results of the athletes’ tests up to June 2016, they had a chance to uncontrollably change them with the goal of creating false evidence,” IC’s spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
Meanwhile, two more Russian athletes have been found guilty of doping after a retest of their samples from the London 2012 Olympics was conducted.
Yulia Guschina, a member of the women’s 4x400m relay team that won silver and Anna Nazarova, who placed fifth in the women’s long jump in London, were found to have tested positive.
Earlier in February, Russia was stripped off a Silver medal after Antonia Krisvoshapka tested positive.
The IOC has reanalysed 226 samples with 21 sanctions made. It has also suspended 19 Russian athletes from the Olympics for life since November 1.
