Sports officials hope Russia won't miss next Olympics as new McLaren report looms

Record ID: 76467

  • Title: Sports officials hope Russia won't miss next Olympics as new McLaren report looms
  • Date: 9th December 2016
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 8, 2016) (REUTERS) GUESTS SITTING AROUND TABLES VARIOUS OF DANCERS ON STAGE GUESTS
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2016 09:45
  • Keywords: Russia sports doping Russain Olympic Committee RUSADA WADA McLauren report
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015C5WE2N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: There is no state-sponsored doping support system in Russia, the country's sports officials said on Thursday (December 8), a night before the release of an independent WADA report prepared by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren.
    They also expressed hope the country's athletes will be able to take part in the next winter Olympic Games.
    "I don't think we will miss the Winter Olympics, I am an optimist," the head of Russia's Independent Public Anti-Doping Commission Vitaly Smirnov said.
    "Of course we do not agree with the statements that there allegedly was a state-sponsored doping support system, this is not true. There has never been such a system in Russia," head of Russia's Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov told Reuters.
    "We will work with the International Olympic Committee, we continue our work with the federations. We have quite good and constructive partner relations. So we will continue our work," Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said.
    The second part of the report presented in London on Friday (December 9) provided more details of an elaborate state-sponsored doping scheme operated by Russia.
    It said there was a systematic cover-up, which was refined at the 2012 Olympics, 2013 world athletics championships and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, and that more than 30 sports, including soccer, were involved in concealing positive doping samples.
    The original McLaren report, released in July, was one of two commissioned by WADA which revealed widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian sport.
    The July report found Moscow had concealed hundreds of positive doping tests in many sports ahead of the Sochi Games and led to a partial ban of Russian athletes competing in Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
    Although Russian track and field athletes and weightlifters were banned from competing at Rio, the International Olympic Committee rejected a blanket ban and let international sports federations decide which athletes should be eligible to compete.
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