Eight years after the Sochi Paralympic Games, the suspected fraud in a total of 21 medals by Russian athletes remains unsolved. The reason why the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) does not step in is apparently fear of consequences.
The alleged doping scandal involving Russian athletes at the home games in Sochi in winter 2014 has not been cleared up for years. The McLaren report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) concluded after the games that urine samples had been manipulated from six Russian winners of a total of 21 medals at the Paralympic Games. The “ARD” doping editorial team had previously uncovered a state-sponsored doping scandal.
Although the IPC initially reacted with sanctions, so far not a single athlete has been penalized, as the “ARDNow it turns out. Among the 2014 suspects was para-cross country skier and biathlete Roman Petushkov, who won six gold medals.
The procedure was probably the same as in the case of the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, in whom trimetazidine, which came on the WADA banned list in early 2014, was detected shortly before the Beijing Winter Olympics. However, the 15-year-old’s case only came to light during the games.
Rodchenkov: “The IPC is afraid”
At the request of “ARD”, the IPC only announced that there were still “a few open cases relating to Russian athletes”. “Because these are open and very complex cases, we cannot disclose the identity of the athletes in question.”
Grigory Rodchenkov, former director of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center, explained why the doping scandal has still not been fully clarified. The laboratory was suspended by WADA in 2015 for systematically falsifying doping samples. Rodchenkov fled to the United States and became a whistleblower himself after the “ARD” revelations. He has been living under a covert identity ever since.
“The IPC is afraid and reluctant to conduct serious investigations, impose appropriate sanctions and strictly redistribute medals. And then finally fight it all before the CAS,” Rodchenkov said in a statement to “ARD”. “That stopped the IPC from conducting a broader investigation.”