Olympia: McLaren disappointed by Russia’s “continuing denial” of Russia

Investigator Richard McLaren has been disappointed by Russia’s “continuing denial” of the doping crisis. Four days before the IOC’s decision on a possible expulsion of the giant Olympic empire in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) the Canadian demanded a severe punishment.

“I think the Russians have made some efforts,”McLaren said in the Deutschlandfunk sports talk:”What disappoints me is their continuing denial. And that they’re not willing to dig any deeper to really break into what’s happening in the country.”

The lawyer had caused a stir with his investigations into Russian doping on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). According to his estimates, around 1,000 Russian athletes benefited from the doping system in the giant empire between 2011 and 2015. Based on its investigation results, the IOC has meanwhile blocked 25 Russian athletes who competed at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi for life, including cross-country skiing Olympic champion Alexander Legkov.

In view of the recent, surprisingly severe punishments by the Oswald Commission, McLaren made a turning point in the stance of the IOC:”The IOC is now about to decide what measures it will impose on the collective, if any. And so far it’s only the athletes. But because of the strong choice of words in the decision (to Legkov, note. d. R.) they will now have difficulty saying that there is no collective responsibility.”

McLaren calmly looked forward to a possible boycott of the Russian team if they had to start in Pyeongchang under a neutral flag:”In a boycott of Russia, the IOC is off the hook. Because then they will be able to say,’ We don’t have to do anything anymore, they have voluntarily excluded themselves from the games.'”

A few weeks ago, WADA had declared that it had come into possession of data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Lab. Shortly afterwards, the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA had further classified it as not compliant with the rules. McLaren revealed that his team already knew the data:”This confirms the disappearance of positive samples in the Moscow lab.”