It was one of sport’s darkest episodes
A much bigger scandal with Russian athletes than we knew
Following the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014...
...Russia was proved to have carried out...
...a vast state-sponsored doping operation
Conspiracy to conceal positive tests
Widespread doping by Russian athletes at the Sochi Olympics
I don’t think anyone was expecting the gravity...
...in terms of the findings, in terms of the cheating
The scandal didn’t just expose an epidemic of foul play...
…it called into question the credibility of a system...
…that’s supposed to guard against doping…
…and protect honest athletes
It still smells of bias...
...towards the interests of sports-governing bodies...
...to the detriment of the athletes
Doping is definitely bad for business...
...and that’s used as an illegitimate excuse to...
...brush it under the rug or ignore it completely
So is there a lack of will to catch the cheats?
Doping isn’t just a Russian problem...
...it’s a global problem
In 2011 an anonymous survey asked...
...more than 1,200 athletes...
...whether they had used performance-enhancing drugs
The result, which was kept quiet for six years, was astonishing
44% admitted to doping...
...but typically only 1-2% of samples test positive
Our career, our livelihood, our name...
...is based on making sure that we…
…stay clean and we compete fairly
Callum Skinner is a retired track cyclist...
...a gold and silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics
Now he campaigns to keep doping out of sports
What we have to do is to send out a clear message…
…that if you do dope…
…it comes with negative consequences
Just like the Olympic motto…
…athletes want to be “faster, higher, stronger”
Performance-enhancing drugs promise just that
But all drugs come with health risks...
...and crucially, they tip the balance in competition
The sports governing bodies...
...especially the International Olympic Committee or the IOC...
...say they want to stop the cheats
But Antoine Duval, a leading sports lawyer...
...believes they are part of the problem
They have an incentive of being seen as doing a lot...
...but they don’t have an incentive to catch a lot of cheats...
...because that would damage the image of their sport
Back in 1999 the IOC declared war on doping
It created the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA
WADA will be very useful...
…for the fight in the future against doping
WADA was set up to be the anti-doping watchdog...
...and to write the rulebook that would dictate...
...best practice globally
But WADA’s independence is questionable
Rob Koehler has unparalleled insight
As the former deputy director at WADA...
...he knows the pressures facing the agency
As WADA became stronger there was resistance...
...from the Olympic movement where there was a desire...
...to have more control
When you lose control…
…you lose the ability to dictate the outcomes
50% of WADA’s funding comes from 190 governments…
…and the other half comes from the IOC
And WADA’s average annual budget of $27m...
...is less than 2% of the IOC’s revenue in an average year
We need to understand that WADA as an institution is weak
It’s basically a naked legislator
It produces rules that it has absolutely no power…
…and capacity to enforce
WADA has around 120 employees
Only seven of them are tasked with conducting…
…investigations into doping schemes…
...worldwide
So it’s extremely dependent on goodwill
With no power to enforce...
...WADA relies on the national anti-doping agencies...
...and sports federations to do drug testing
But different countries have different means, ability...
...and yes, political will, to catch dopers
And that’s why the Russians could run a very neat...
...front organisations that was apparently in compliance…
…with those rules…
…while systematically bypassing them
The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics were a huge success…
…for the Russian team
Two years later and just weeks before the...
...opening ceremony at Rio 2016...
...something happened that no one had anticipated
Grigory Rodchenkov…
…the head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory…
…turned whistleblower
His admissions…
…captured in the Oscar-winning Netflix documentary…
…“Icarus”, thrust Russia’s actions…
…into the public consciousness like never before
I was helping to facilitate one of the most...
...elaborate doping ploys in sports history
WADA had been investigating allegations of Russian doping…
…since 2014
But it wasn’t until July 2016 that it published a report…
…conducted by independent lawyer Richard McLaren
The Moscow laboratory operated…
…within a state-directed, failsafe system
Russia tampered with urine samples of athletes...
...in a thriller-like, cover-up operation
Russia was found to have mouse holes to slip samples through...
...in the middle of the night and switch urine samples
They even mixed in salt and coffee…
…to contaminate doped samples
More than 1,000 Russian athletes were accused of doping
Russia was categorical in its denial
There has never been and, I hope...
...will never be any state system of supporting doping in Russia
WADA was determined that Russia should pay the full price
The WADA executive committee…
…made strong recommendations…
…that the Russian Olympic Committee be banned from…
…the Rio Olympic games
I recall being so proud of the organisation I worked for
But the IOC rejected WADA’s recommendations
The basic and the difficult question we had to answer...
...was: can you hold any athlete...
...responsible for the wrongdoing...
...of the government of his or her country?
The IOC allowed individual athletes…
…to appeal against the decision…
...at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS
The result?
Over two-thirds of the Russian team…
…were allowed to participate
Two years later the IOC cleared 169 Russian athletes…
…to take part in the Winter Olympics
But were those outcomes entirely due to concern about...
...the rights of individual athletes?
The answer may lie in a complex web of…
…politics and power in sports
Russia is a powerhouse in sport
They provide a lot of money into sport
They host a lot of events in the sport
And there’s this
Russian politics and sports are very often enmeshed
Alexander Zhukov, Russia’s deputy prime minister...
...doubled up as president of the Russian Olympic Committee
Pavel Kolobkov was deputy minister of sports…
…and part of WADA
And then there’s Vitaly Mutko
He was sports minister during the Sochi scandal…
…but he wasn’t sacked for this embarrassing episode
In fact he was promoted to deputy prime minister
But placing influential people in positions of power…
…isn’t just a Russian affair
The IOC has two bodies that are predominantly dedicated...
...to fighting doping...
...WADA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS
Like WADA, CAS was also established by the IOC
These two bodies are meant to be independent…
…but an intricate network of rules…
…and people has raised questions
Well I think it is a very small community, in terms of sport
There’s a lot of conflicts of interest where…
…people are filling different roles
Three senior IOC members…
…Thomas Bach...
...Craig Reedie...
...and John Coates…
...have held key positions at the CAS and at WADA...
...often at the same time
And the list doesn’t end there
Should the president of WADA also be an IOC member...
...where there’s...
…a divergence of loyalties?
You don’t see the president of the US...
...sitting in the same time on the Supreme Court
This is not the way it should work
This inner-circle mentality means that the IOC maintains...
...a tight grip on the bodies it had set up as independent
IOC is an elitist club of the highest kind
All those executives of sports...
...raise at least a suspicion...
…that there might be something foul
Despite its $5.7bn revenue per Olympic cycle…
…the IOC is registered as a non-profit organisation...
...and benefits from Switzerland’s lenient association laws...
...which means it has a lot of leeway in how it runs itself...
...and raises the question…
…is anyone governing the governing bodies?
We have private associations…
…that are exercising government governance…
…and they are proud of it
But they claim it without the strings…
…that traditional public authorities…
...in democratic countries, at least, are subjected to...
...which are transparency, accountability, et cetera
So can anyone hold the IOC to account?
I put some of the blame on sponsors and broadcasters
73% of the IOC’s revenue comes through TV rights
They’re the ones supporting and promoting the Olympic games
Surely there should be a responsibility...
…from the broadcasters that are sponsoring...
...from the sponsors; demand change
The IOC insists there is no inherent conflict of interest in its…
…relationship with WADA
It has stated its desire to make testing more independent from…
…sports organisations and governments
It claims that a $20m investment…
…into anti-doping research…
…and the protection of clean athletes…
…is now bearing fruit
But some athletes believe this should just be the start
As soon as athletes start to lose confidence in the system…
…they start to think, how can I win…
…if it’s not a level playing field?
People will always find ways of trying to cheat
But what we need to do is get better at catching them
And I think one of the key ways that we can do that…
…is if sports governance officials wake up to...
…their responsibility to athletes…
…their responsibility to protect fair and clean sport…
…their responsibility to protect the welfare of the athletes…
…and their responsibility...
…for athletes to have faith in the anti-doping system
