First Round of Moscow Lab Review Finds 300 Potential New Doping Violations

According to a report issued today by WADA, the World’s Anti-Doping Agency, nearly 300 Russian athletes have been identified as having possible doping violations after review of data retrieved from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory. According to the report, out of the 298 athletes identified thus far, only the data belonging to 43 of these have been sent to their respective International Federations (IFs). No specific names have been released, nor even sports of the identified athletes. It will be up to each International Federation to review the evidence and decide whether to proceed with anti-doping hearings. If the IF chooses not to act, WADA will review and discuss the facts with the IF, and reserves the right to take individual cases forward to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

WADA did not indicate if all the data forwarded was for Russian athletes; the Moscow laboratory did not exclusively test Russians. Details on what markers they were looking for to identify targets for forwarding to IFs were also thin – just referring to the 298 as those with “the most suspicious data.”

“WADA I&I continues to make good progress on this long-running and complex case,” the program’s director Gunter Younger said. “The fact that we have moved to the results management phase means we are another step closer to bringing to justice those who cheated. This is an excellent development for clean sport and athletes around the world.”

“There is still a lot of work left to do but we wish to acknowledge the ongoing cooperation with IFs as well as RUSADA. None of this progress would be possible without WADA’s ExCo decision of September 2018.”

Additionally, WADA I&I has begun a “targeted re-analysis program” of samples retrieved from the Moscow lab. So far, that has resulted in 3 adverse analytical findings. RUSADA has notified those 3 athletes and begun anti-doping proceedings.

As a result of the 2016 investigation, many Russian athletes were banned from competing at the Rio Olympic Games. At the time, the investigation, which resulted in the colloquially-named “McLaren report,” after Richard McLaren, who wrote it, involved swimmers Yuliya Efimova and Vladimir Morozov, who were later cleared to compete in Rio.

That was not the case in the Paralympics. Russia was banned from taking part at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) considered the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) non-compliant with the established policies.

In September of 2018, WADA reinstated the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) as compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, even though they failed to meet the standards for reinstatement. Further, the new restrictions and deadlines placed against them for turning over data and granting investigators access were not met, though eventually WADA did receive all data and samples.

Furthermore, in February of this year, Russia was reinstated into the Paralympic Movement in light of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

As reported a few weeks ago, the Moscow-based lab that was shut down in 2015 had been secretly testing samples since 2016 without full WADA’s full accreditation. Then, a few weeks ago, Russia’s Athletics Federation was under investigation over doping cover-up allegations involving high jumper Danil Lysenko.

The report issued earlier today by WADA also indicates that “in cases where an IF chooses not to act, WADA will review and discuss the facts with the IF. WADA reserves the right to bring cases forward to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).”

As the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games approach, Russia is in a race against time to prove itself compliant with WADA regulations or may be otherwise be considered ineligible for next year’s Games.