Earlier this month, an Olympic steroid scandal broke out claiming that a portion of the Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics were involved in a government-sanctioned steroid program. New reports are now emerging that Russian athletes also tested positive at another recent Olympics.
The BBC is reporting 14 Russian athletes tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympics.
This all comes on the heels of an announcement from the IOC last week that 454 samples were going to be re-tested using new scientific testing analysis.
The Russian Olympic Committee announced (in Russian) this finding and has stated all of the athletes involved are banned from international competition. However, they’re downplaying the results, with sports minister Vitaly Mutko telling the BBC’s Dan Roan this is both a small number of athletes and not all Russia’s fault:
“Take into account the fact the Russian national team is the second biggest after the USA – so this doesn’t give an objective picture of the doping situation in Russia.”
“The IAAF is also to blame – they partly covered [up] the Russian athletes who were doping and their task is not to punish, not to sanction,” Mutko said. “The priority for them must be the development of track and field worldwide and you cannot achieve that with punishment. It would be useless.
“It damages hugely the reputation and image of track and field. It would decrease the popularity of the sport in Russia. Kids would not want to do track and field.”
The above quotes came in response to a question about whether or not Mutko expects the athletes involved in the 2008 steroid scandal to be allowed to participate in the 2016 Rio Summer games later this summer. Russia is currently suspended by the IOC, and these latest revelations may not help their case.
While the Russian Olympic Committee said it would not release the names according to the IOC laws, Russia’s Match TV did, according to the BBC. Of the 14 athletes, 10 were medalists including Yulia Chermoshanskaya (pictured at right at top), who won gold in the 4x100m relay team, silver medallist javelin thrower Maria Abakumova, and Anna Chicherova, who won bronze in the high jump.
All of this comes after the director of Russia’s anti-doping lab Grigory Rodchenkov told the New York Times that Russia ran a massive doping scheme when it hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and after whistleblowers Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov told 60 Minutes medal-winners from both Sochi and the 2012 London Olympics took part in the doping schemes.
[The BBC]