Why has it taken hundreds of years to disclose and ban drug cheats in sport?
Ever since the Olympics’ inception in Ancient Greece 1896, doping has plagued the Olympics Games. Most notably by the East Germans in the 1970s, followed by Russia’s dominance from the Moscow Games 1980 until London 2012.
Originating from 1896, historically, athletes were known to drink ‘magic’ potions and eat exotic meals in hopes of giving them an edge on their competition. Since then, doping strategies have alarmingly advanced with the growth of amphetamine, anabolic steroids and EPO, amongst other prohibited drugs.
Russia’s statewide doping system has plagued sport for decades, dating back to the 1980 Olympics, but how did they get away with it?
That is exactly how. Russia had a systemic doping system which enabled doping and encouraged doping in athletics, amongst other sports. Athletes were allegedly supplied banned substances by Russian officials in exchange for 5% of an athlete’s earnings. Such officials would also falsify tests in cooperation with doping control officers, so athletes would not be flagged up as cheats.
The doping discovery
Russian doping whistle-blowers, Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanova were the first individuals to reveal pivotal information that led to the discovery of deep-rooted state-sponsored doping in Russia. The first revelation was made in 2010 by an employee at the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), Vitaly Stepanova, who started sending information alleging that RUSADA was enabling statewide doping in athletics to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). However, WADA failed to open an enquiry into the matter and instead forwarded the email to Russian sports officials, according to The New York Times.
Due to thorough investigative reporting, in 2014, came the ARD documentary; “The Doping Secret: ‘How Russia Creates its Champions” which exposed the truth of the Russian state-sponsored doping system and included covert doping conversations. In response to the documentary, the All-Russian Athletic Federation President (ARAF) resigned from his role as treasurer of the IAAF.
Bribes, bugging and bans.
WADA then launched their own independent investigation in 2015, which reported statewide doping and cover-ups. Its findings stated that the Federal Security Service had regularly instructed laboratory staff not to communicate with the WADA investigation. In fact, two staff members suspected that offices and telephones were bugged.
On 13 November 2015, the IAAF council voted in favour of prohibiting Russia from world track and field with immediate effect. The same month saw a French criminal investigation into former IAAF president Lamine alleging that in 2011 he accepted a EUR 1 million bribe from the All-Russia Athletic Federation to cover up positive doping tests for six Russian athletes.
On 18 July 2016, Canadian attorney Richard McLaren who was employed by WADA to investigate Rodchenkov, the former head of ARAF, published his report. The report concluded that it was shown ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that a range of Russian sports authorities and the FSS had operated a state-sponsored doping system by utilising bribes, misinformation and “the disappearing positive test methodology”. The McLaren report showed that over 1,000 athletes in 30 different sports were involved in systematic doping.
Subsequently, WADA held that RUSADA had acted with disrespect by not complying with the World Anti-Doping Code, suggesting to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Russia should not be allowed to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games. The IOC decided to decline accreditation requests for officials for the 2016 Olympics.
In response, the Russian Olympic Committee filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which was rejected. CAS stated that since the IOC was not a party in the arbitrations, it had no jurisdiction to determine whether the IOC is entitled to allow Russian athletes to participate at the 2016 Olympic Games. Similarly, for the same reason, CAS could not determine whether Russian athletes could participate as “neutral athletes”.
At the present, for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, a limited number of Russian athletes will be able to compete under a neutral flag. For athletics, the number is no more than 10.
RUSADA, ARAF and Russian athlete’s systematic doping plagued Olympic Games for decades. Their performances were once perceived as astonishing, now the extent of corruption and systemic scandal is astonishing. How will Russian athletes be able to reclaim their image and leave their tarnished name in the past?
