Russia’s place at Rio Olympics hangs in balance after ‘state-sponsored’ doping
An independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has revealed that 1,417 samples were deliberately destroyed on the orders of the director of Russia’s drug-testing laboratory — who took cash to cover up positive tests — while there was intimidation of officials by undercover officers from the Russian secret service FSB.
The commission’s chairman, Dick Pound, said Russia should be banned from next year’s Olympics, and that London 2012 — where Russia won 82 medals — had been “sabotaged” by the presence of Russian athletes with suspicious doping profiles.
