MOSCOW, July 4, Oleg Bogatov. Informant's second book appears The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of Grigory Rodchenkov, who fled to the United States, about doping in Russia may be connected with an attempt to pressure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) before making a final decision on the admission of Russians to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, said the former director of the Center for Sports and education «Sambo-70» Renat Laishev.
Earlier, Rodchenkov, in an interview with the Daily Mail, announced the release of his new book, in which he promises to tell the «full history of the Russian doping system,» and also criticized the IOC.
“It’s hard for me to say something against Rodchenkov. I have my own considerations and thoughts. But I believe in our guys, that they believe in our country, and not that Rodchenkov, for the sake of his American masters, is doing something It suits him there. Probably, this is some kind of his tactic. Maybe this is due to an attempt of some kind of pressure (from the United States) on the IOC before making a decision on the admission of our athletes to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris,» Laishev said. .
In 2016, Rodchenkov told the New York Times that a Russian «doping program» was allegedly implemented at the Sochi Olympics aimed at dominating the home Games. His testimony formed the basis of Richard McLaren's report, as a result of which the Russian team played at the 2016 Summer Olympics in a truncated composition, and went to the 2018 Winter Games in a neutral status. According to the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Russian athletes also performed without a flag and an anthem at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and at the Winter Games in 2022 in Beijing. The sanctions expired on December 16, 2022.
On March 28, the IOC Executive Committee recommended that international federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who did not support the CBO to participate in international competitions as neutral athletes, while proposing not to consider teams from Russia as participants in international competitions in team sports.