Threat of bad weather for Russian sport. Not the first. And, barring an improbable upheaval in the alignment of the planets, certainly not the last. It touches on doping. It looks stormy.
According to Youri Ganous, the head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), the data from the Moscow laboratory, extracted at the beginning of the year not without difficulty by a team of WADA experts, would have been intentionally manipulated . He made the admission in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel.
« The changes made to the data are so important and significant that it cannot be an accident, suggested Youri Ganous. The data has been altered or backdated in some way. Someone tried to hide the information in a very big way. It is also possible that the names of the athletes have been affected. » The manipulation would involve thousands of data.
Obviously not very sensitive to the consequences of his statements, Youri Ganous explains that the changes made do not only relate to the data from the controls carried out in 2015. “ The most recent dates back to December 2018, or even January 2019.” Information which sheds new light on the difficulties encountered by the WADA team of experts in gaining access to the Moscow anti-doping laboratory and its millions of data points.
The general director of RUSADA is already looking towards the future. He imagines it dark. “ Sanctions could be very harsh, as it won't be the first time Russia has broken the laws, he advances. Participation in the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games hangs in the balance. »
By a strange coincidence, the interview given by Youri Ganous to Spiegel is published the same day that the Russian Minister of Sports, former fencer Pavel Kolobkov, proudly announced that his country had fully answered all the questions asked by WADA concerning “ inconsistencies” observed in the data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.
“We are confident that we have responded to all requests, assured Pavel Kolobkov. And in the future we will be just as ready to work together to get out of this situation as quickly as possible. » Cool.
At the end of September, the World Anti-Doping Agency granted Russia three weeks to explain a series of inconsistencies noted by its teams of experts during their patient and laborious work of analyzing electronic data from controls. from the old Moscow laboratory.
Moscow met the deadlines. But it is not certain that his punctuality will radically change the course of things. WADA specified, in a press release, that the responses provided by the Russian authorities will be examined by “ forensic experts.”
The rest looks unclear. WADA clarified that it had not established a timetable for the continuation of the work. The only clue: its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) is due to meet these experts on October 23. The meeting promises to be technical. But it could lead to a new round of sanctions. Nine months before the Tokyo 2020 Games, Russian athletes have undoubtedly not reached the end of their ordeal.
