Whistleblowers have been urged to come forward to help the fight against doping after fresh allegations of Russian wrongdoing have surfaced, this time in swimming.
According to reports in the Times and Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, two senior Russian anti-doping officials offered to stop testing Russian swimmers for money in the buildup to London 2012.
The former head of Russia’s anti-doping agency Nikita Kamaev and the director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, are alleged to have asked the national swimming federation for three million roubles (currently £32,200) a year to remove “two or three leading swimmers” from the testing group.
This offer, which the swimming federation declined, is reported to have been delivered over two meetings in autumn 2011.
A statement from swimming’s world governing body Fina read: “These are very serious allegations and we urge anyone with relevant evidence to bring it forward to Fina so that we can share with all appropriate authorities and take immediate disciplinary action if required.
“Fina is monitoring all developments in the world’s fight against cheating and doping in sport and is taking decisive action to protect the majority of our athletes who are clean.”
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In other news …
“All these speculations have an impact on sportsmen who have nothing to do with doping and are open to all checks within the framework of the laws in force,” Russia’s R-Sport news agency quoted swimming federation chief Vladimir Salnikov as saying.
“It is absurd and a provocation on the day of an important decision for Russian sport,” he said.
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