Russia Cheated… or Disgruntled Ex-Employee of the State?

"Instead of being in prison, win at any cost."

News out of Russia is ripe with miss-truths and altered "facts".  It's fairly well known (outside of Russia at least), that the Kremlin keeps very tight control over the information allowed to flow out of the country.

In the midst of a massive world-wide backlash regarding a new anti-gay propaganda law, and in advance of planned military aggression (which barely waited until the 2014 Olympics saw their completion), and after a very poor performance in the previous 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, as the host country, the pressure was understandably extreme to have a good podium result.

According to a New York Times article, allegations are that Russia ensured their podium dominance by employing the services of one of the world's leading anti-doping scientists. Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov ran the laboratory that handled all of the testing for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.  As one of the world's leading anti-doping specialists, it also makes him one of the world's leading experts on performance enhancement drugs.  Dr. Rodchenkov claims to have come up with a cocktail of three drugs, which he would mix with alcohol to speed the absorbtion into athlete's bodies.  This specially tailored cocktail would also remove itself from one's body far faster than other drugs, making it harder, but not impossible to detect.

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The next step of the plan to ensuring Russia got away with their cheating, was to swap out tainted urine samples, overnight, in a dark lab.

Now living in Los Angeles, having moved for fear of his safety, the doctor goes into extreme detail during his interview with the New York Times, which leads one to believe there may be some merit to his account.

To counter any such tactics, anti-doping labs are secure and closely monitored.  During major international sporting events, experts from many different countries are employed in these labs so as to ensure some level of added security.  Though one could wonder if the security measures employed would be any match to a super-power's higher level covert agents.  And that's just what the doctors claims happened.  That agents from the Russian Internal Intelligence Agency, the F.S.B., were involved in the handling of urine samples for the dark lab.

Photo Credit: Tony Cenicola / The New York Times - Example of what sample bottles used in international sporting event anti-doping measures look like

But there's one major hole in the plan as described by Dr. Rodchenkov, the sample bottles. The bottles, manufactured by a Swiss company, are glass, have the unique sample number etched into the lid, which has a locking ring with teeth.  Supposedly the only way to get the lid off is to break it, making the bottles "Tamper-Proof".

Dr. Rodchenkov claims that well in advance of the Olympics, a F.S.B. agent stopped by his lab and collected numerous bottles which he took back with him.  Then during the Olympics themselves, Rodchenkov would hand actual sample bottles through a small hole in a wall, then a while later they would be handed back to him, with the lids cleanly removed and in tact, along with other bottles of clean urine samples, which he was then expected to swap with the tainted samples in the original bottles.

It all sounds like an impossible and elaborate plot straight out of a movie, but shortly after the Doctor fled his homeland for the safety of the USA, supposedly a couple of others from his lab back in Russia mysteriously died within weeks of each other.

So the question remains, are the charges of sample tampering and cheating that Dr. Rodchenkov is bringing forward true? Or is he a disgruntled ex-employee of the state, and seeking some retribution after being forced to leave his homeland, feeding off the plots of many American made movies to gain himself some international fame and attention? It's also possible that this is all part of the plan of the Kremlin to scapegoat Rodchenkov, and have him make wild accusations that they can then prove baseless, in an attempt to build up their reputation after years of doping scandals.

Investigations by the I.O.C. and the World Anti-Doping Agency may find us some answers, but until then, we'll have to wait.

Read the whole New York Times article HERE.

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Cover Photo: Atos International/Flickr