Russia’s anti-doping agency will undergo reforms rather than be officially shut down as originally suggested, according to the Associated Press.
ESPN.com has the story here, reporting that Russia’s national anti-doping agency – known as RUSADA – will remain as an organization, per a quote from Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.
ESPN reports that Mutko earlier suggested RUSADA could be disbanded in the wake of the massive doping scandal that rocked Russia early this month, though it appears that step will not be taken.
That scandal erupted when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released the findings of its independent report on the state of anti-doping programs in Russia. The report made some major allegations about Russia’s athletics program, which was the focus of the report commissioned after a German documentary made similar accusations against Russian track and field athletes.
Among the major pieces of note for the sport of swimming: the report suggested that the alleged illegalities could be present in other sports as well, noting that “there is no reason to believe that Athletics is the only sport in Russia to have been affected by the identified systemic failures.”
The report also indicted the integrity of the Moscow anti-doping lab, which tested all samples from last summer’s FINA World Aquatics Championships. You can read more about that revelation here.
