Martin Johnsrud Sundby blamed his poor performance at 2015 World Championships on stress from his positive doping test, while WADA's scientific director is now commenting that asthma drugs are performance-enhancing at high doses. In addition, Russian hackers released athlete medical records from a WADA database.
Although the IOC said in July that Russia should not host any international winter sports events due to their systematic doping violations and cheating at the 2014 Olympics, it apparently walked those guidelines back -- and now Russia has been awarded biathlon World Championships, despite the fact that the country is not currently in compliance with the WADA Code.
The IOC Executive Board ruled Sunday against a blanket ban on Russian athletes entering the Olympics following the biggest doping scandal in decades. More than the conclusion itself, the guidelines are confusing and unclear -- not to mention unfair to Russian athletes and to clean athletes around the world.
FIS rules did not require a provisional suspension for Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby after his urine samples came back with high concentrations of salbutamol. And after their hearing panel concluded he had broken no rules - a finding later reverse by the Court of Arbitration for Sport - FIS could only publicize the case with Sundby's permission. They say he refused.
A jam-packed episode of the FS podcast -- the McLaren report, athlete commission responses and some analysis from FS Editor-At-Large Chelsea Little.
On Tuesday, the IOC Executive Board responded to the McLaren report and listed provisional measures for international sports federations moving forward. Fortunately for FIS and the IBU, they're not on the same timeline as summer sports, and will convene at a meeting in just over two weeks in Rio.
News broke Wednesday that Martin Johnsrud Sundby, the three-time defending overall World Cup and Tour de Ski champion, had been handed a two-month sanction and disqualified from two races (and his 2015 Tour de Ski and 2015 overall World Cup titles). "I went into the 2015/2016-season knowing I was innocent, and also that I was acquitted," he said in a press conference. "I think the verdict is totally unreasonable."
Martin Fourcade, the most successful biathlete of the last several years, resorted to Twitter to ask his international federation about the ten positive tests by Russian athletes allegedly hidden by the Russian Ministry of Sport. He didn't get a response. Meanwhile, the IOC moved forward with re-testing anti-doping samples from all Russian athletes at the 2014 Olympics, and also called for any major events scheduled to be held in Russia to be moved.
This morning, Professor Richard McLaren disclosed his findings after looking into claims of Russian state-sponsored doping and its cover-up. Here's a quick summary of his findings, which were enough to prompt WADA to call for Russian athletes in all sports to be banned from the 2016 Olympics.
The two published studies on meldonium excretion show that concentrations in urine samples fall below 1 μg/mL within a day or two -- so why did WADA suggest lifting provisional suspensions on athletes testing up to 15 μg/mL in the first two months of 2016?
The International Association of Athletics Federations has banned the Russian track and field team from the 2016 Summer Olympics after a doping scandal. As other federations with doping problems look on, it remains to be seen whether the decision will be upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the International Olympic Committee.
The latest documentary by Hajo Seppelt alleges that Natalia Zhelanova, the anti-doping assistant at Russia's Ministry of Sport, tipped off skiing and biathlon teams before sample collection. Did WADA's ADAMS system, where federations are encouraged to pre-register their planned tests, allow this to happen?
Russian whistleblower Vitaliy Stepanov initially met with World Anti-Doping Agency representatives at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and said he had heard of a list of athletes who were "protected" in the leadup to those Games and which RUSADA was told not to test.
For Throwback Thursday, we're reposting a November editorial calling for WADA to investigate doping in winter sports and irregularities at the Sochi Olympics. How many of our questions have been answered in the last six months?
“There needs to be an investigation by WADA,” International Ski Federation (FIS) Secretary General Sarah Lewis told FasterSkier in a phone interview on Monday. “FIS totally supports it and we have already expressed that anything we can provide, we will do. And it needs to be done [quickly], but carefully.”
When news broke last week that 14 Russian cross-country skiers may have doped at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, stakeholders in the sport reacted around the globe. Some, like Canada's then head coach Justin Wadsworth, essentially predicted that two years ago at the Games. Others, like French skier Robin Duvillard, tried not to get too caught up in it, but he might by default.
On Thursday, Beckie Scott, a Canadian Olympic gold medalist and WADA Athlete Committee chair, spoke at the WADA Executive Board meeting in Montreal and urged the agency to use its influence now. "If there cannot be a guarantee that athletes [at the Olympics] are professionally clean and not involved in doping activity, then they should not be there," she said.
On Sunday evening, 60 Minutes aired a 13-minute interview with Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov, the whistleblowers who prompted a German documentary on Russia's systematic doping in track and field and WADA's resulting ban on the entire team. Vitaly suggests the corruption extends to Russian Winter Olympians as well, including at least four who achieved gold in Sochi with the help of federal agents.
Biathletes Artem Tyshchenko and Eduard Latypov and cross-country skier Kirill Vichuzhanin have had their provisional suspensions for meldonium lifted, as their samples contained less than 1 μg/mL of the drug. Cases for Eva Tofalvi and Olga Abramova are yet to be decided.
The IBU Anti-Doping Hearing Panel has deferred judgement on the meldonium cases of Ukrainian biathletes Olga Abramova and Artem Tyshchenko until WADA completes a report on how quickly the drug leaves athletes' bodies.