Inside Russia’s Failed Doping Cover-Up

Reported today on The New York Times

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Inside Russia's Failed Doping Cover-UpA World Anti-Doping Agency report outlines how Russia fabricated evidence to try to discredit a whistle-blower. In the years since a whistle-blower implicated Russia in one of the most sophisticated doping schemes in sports history, the country has made repeated efforts to discredit him. Last year, Russia officials took that campaign one step further: They planted fabricated messages that they later claimed were written by the whistle-blower in a database that they had agreed to turn over to investigators from the World Anti-Doping Agency. The effort appeared to have several goals, according to a report compiled by the antidoping agency's intelligence and investigations unit and obtained by The New York Times: to frame the whistle-blower as the ringleader in a scheme to extort athletes and coaches by threatening to manipulate doping samples; to provide cover for the manipulations of test results within the data set; and to help Russia avoid serious penalties from global antidoping regulators.The problem for Russia is that the investigators quickly uncovered the fabrications and the altered test results. And now Russian sports is facing its biggest crisis to date.On Monday, WADA confirmed that the committee charged with investigating and monitoring Russia compliance with global antidoping rules had recommended barring the country from all international sporting events, including next year's Olympics in Tokyo, for four years. WADA's executive board will consider the committee's recommendation when it meets for a special session on Dec. 9 in Paris. It is expected to agree with the findings. If Russia is barred, the country can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, sport's highest court. The court then would have to weigh eviden

Cover-Up