The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday said Russian athletes widely used drugs to enhance performance at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and that top sports officials oversaw an operation to hide the doping.
The agency’s independent commission report found that a Moscow laboratory protected Russian athletes during the winter games, which renewed calls Monday for Russia to be banned from the Rio Games this summer, according to Reuters.
Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor and sports lawyer who led WADA’s report, said tainted urine samples were swapped for clean ones at the laboratory and that the Russian Ministry of Sport oversaw the manipulation through a state-directed system, the news agency reports.
McLaren, speaking at a news conference Monday, said the report’s findings have been proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” and that the evidence collected is “verifiable,” according to The Guardian. “I have unwavering confidence in the report,” McLaren said.
Specific athletes were not named in the report. McLaren told reporters the scandal involved competitors in “the vast majority of sports.”
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