{"id":5301,"date":"2016-01-14T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/new-findings-in-scandal-concern-anti-doping-firm\/"},"modified":"2016-01-14T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:00:14","slug":"new-findings-in-scandal-concern-anti-doping-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/new-findings-in-scandal-concern-anti-doping-firm\/","title":{"rendered":"New findings in scandal concern anti-doping firm"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS<\/strong> \u2014 Findings reported by The Associated Press that track and field officials contemplated hiding the full extent of Russian doping before the 2012 London Olympics are \u201cmost concerning\u201d and warrant further investigation, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The AP reported Tuesday that six years before the International Association of Athletics Federations banned Russia, the governing body knew of doping so out of control it feared Russian athletes could die from abusing blood-boosting drugs and transfusions, and officials considered collaborating with Russians to hide the extent of cheating before the London Games.<\/p>\n

The findings came from internal IAAF documents the AP received from a person intimately involved in the IAAF\u2019s anti-doping program. The person requested anonymity because he wasn\u2019t allowed to release the documents.<\/p>\n

Two internal IAAF papers before the London Olympics proposed not publishing doping sanctions for lesser-known Russians. That would have violated WADA rules and the notes themselves specified that the proposed non-disclosure would be contrary to usual IAAF practice. The IAAF confirmed the authenticity of the documents but said the proposed hush-up of Russian bans was never carried out.<\/p>\n

WADA said its commission that is investigating Russian doping and cover-ups should investigate the findings, if it hasn\u2019t already.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suggestions, if accurate, are most concerning,\u201d WADA spokesman Ben Nichols said in a statement to AP. \u201cIf this is new information that WADA\u2019s Independent Commission has not already examined, it will need to (be) investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second volume of findings from the WADA probe is due to be released Thursday. Its first report last November pointed to Russian government complicity in widespread, systematic doping, leading the IAAF to suspend Russia\u2019s track and field athletes from international competition.<\/p>\n

Athletes reacted with disgust at the new AP findings that IAAF blood tests as far back as 2009 were already providing shocking insight into the scale and gravity of Russian doping. The findings raised new questions about why the organization waited six years before suspending Russia, which could see its athletes miss the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing,\u201d Australian race walker Jared Tallent said Wednesday in an AP phone interview. \u201cThey knew Russia had massive problems back in 2009. Action should have been taken a lot sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

British javelin thrower Goldie Sayers tweeted: \u201cAnd so it goes on. Clean athletes also damage their long-term health trying to compete with cheats. Makes me sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IAAF documents reveal how its officials appealed for action from Russia, but also used advances in blood testing against offenders. They shed light on key junctures in Russia\u2019s doping crisis, which has been muddied by allegations that IAAF and Russian officials took bribes from athletes to hide doping.<\/p>\n

By 2011, the IAAF\u2019s blood passport testing regime was flagging so many suspected Russian dopers that officials explored breaking their own rules and the WADA code by dealing with some cases privately, two internal IAAF notes show.<\/p>\n

They proposed by-the-book sanctions for elite Russians likely to win in London, but \u201crapid and discreet\u201d handling for lesser-known athletes whose disappearance from competition would probably go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

For athletes who agreed, the IAAF would \u201cundertake not to publish the sanction,\u201d which would be shortened to two years from four, according to a Dec. 5, 2011, brief.<\/p>\n

IAAF spokesman Chris Turner said both notes were sent by the IAAF\u2019s anti-doping director at the time, Gabriel Dolle. One was to Habib Cisse, who was legal counsel to then-IAAF President Lamine Diack, the other to Diack himself, Turner told the AP.<\/p>\n

Turner said a colleague of Dolle\u2019s in the anti-doping department objected at the time to the proposed non-disclosure of bans and they were published.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery suspicious ABP (blood passport) profile was investigated in full accordance with IAAF rules and the World Anti-Doping Code,\u201d he told AP. \u201cAll confirmed doping cases were publicly sanctioned. Nothing was covered-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diack is facing corruption and money laundering charges in France, accused of taking more than 1 million euros ($1.1 million) in a scheme to blackmail athletes and cover up their doping positives. French magistrates also are investigating Cisse and Dolle for suspected corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 Findings reported by The Associated Press that track and field officials contemplated hiding the full extent of Russian doping before the 2012 London Olympics are \u201cmost concerning\u201d and warrant further investigation, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday. The AP reported Tuesday that six years before the International Association of Athletics Federations banned Russia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5301"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}