The hacker group Fancy Bears provided RT with one of the letters from Richard W. McLaren, head of the Anti-Doping Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the correspondence of the committee staff preparing the answer to the Canadian lawyer. The subject of discussion was his report on doping in Russian sports. The IOC requests assistance in completing an investigation into the athletes mentioned in the document, which McLaren refuses to do.
On February 23 this year, IOC General Manager Christopher de Kepper wrote an open letter on behalf of his organization. In it, the Belgian functionary talked about the current situation in the Olympic movement after the publication of the second part of Richard McLaren’s report on “institutional collusion” in Russian sports organized to hide the use of doping during the Winter Olympics in Sochi. De Kepper mentioned the work of the two commissions investigating the facts published by the Canadian lawyer, and added that WADA agreed with the Russian side on the lack of evidence of the athletes fault.
McLaren was hinted that his work did not fully satisfy the IOC, which committed itself to finally sort out the scandal and punish the perpetrators. The Canadian lawyer preferred not to respond in public and two weeks later sent a letter to Kepper to clarify a number of points. This text was placed at the disposal of RT.
At the beginning of his letter, the author of the report on doping expressed surprise that the letter of the IOC general director was published in the public domain. “I always sent you copies of my reports for comments and public statements and would like to receive from you the same service,” McLaren said.
The Canadian recalled that he did not receive the right to judge individual athletes, but had to assess the work and scale of the entire system that caused a crisis in world sports. McLaren noted that the findings of his report are not specific allegations, and he brought all the evidence on a special website.
Speaking about the Oswald commission, which is entrusted to recheck the samples of Russians from the last few Olympics, McLaren notes that repeated tests are not required for ones taken in Sochi, because of the substitution they will all give a negative result. He also notes that, thanks to his work, the IOC has found hundreds of positive samples after rechecking from the London Olympics: “I gave you the information you need to conduct repeated tests and indicated from which athletes you should start. You forget to mention this merit of my team.”
Further, McLaren agreed with WADA that his translations from Russian into English can not be considered official, are only suitable for reading the report and should not lead to any legal consequences. Finally, the Canadian noted that he was proud of the work done, and reiterated to the IOC that he was disappointed with the premature publication of De Kepper’s letter without prior consultation with him.
In the apparatus of the IOC, McLaren’s letter was met with some skepticism. De Kepper, Communications Director Mark Adams, Medical Director Richard Badgett, Director of Legal Affairs Howard Stapp and Administrative Assistant Hannah Grossenbacher have joined the correspondence.
The letter of the head of the anti-doping commission WADA was first commented by Stapp. He ironically spoke of McLaren’s reluctance to blame specific athletes: “It seems to me, or his first report was aimed at preventing Russia before the Olympics in Rio? And the second <…> to Pyeongchang?” According to Stapp, the discrepancy between McLaren and WADA over the publication of the report and the lack of communication with the IOC put the Olympic movement in a very embarrassing situation. He noted that the committee has always advocated the analysis of each violation separately without the application of collective responsibility.
Further, Stapp was surprised at McLaren’s assertion that none of Sochi’s samples will give a positive result any more. Badgett noticed that this is not true: there are suspicions that a doping test of one of the Russian athletes contains prohibited substances. Who of the athletes can be found doping, the medical director of the IOC did not specify. It’s been three months now, but the results of the re-examination of the Sochi samples have not been announced.
Stapp also commented on McLaren’s interpretations of translations and expressed surprise that IOC and international federations are required to take action against Russians on the basis of the report, although his translations from the Russian can not even be used in the judicial process, since they are purely official. After that, IOC officials began to write a response letter to McLaren. To the astonished remark by the Canadian that they are not consulted with him before publishing the materials, Stapp replied that McLaren himself refused to show the draft version of the second part of the report, although IOC insisted on this and guaranteed that this information would remain confidential.
The Director of Legal Affairs also reminded McLaren that before publishing the first part of the report, the Canadian allowed himself to state that the content of the document “does not concern the Olympic Committee in the first place,” although he could not fail to understand that three weeks before the Rio Olympics this would necessarily lead to The consequences that will affect the IOC.
Stapp also responded to McLaren about the recheck tests of summer Olympics and noted that this process began before the publication of the first part of the report, so that in the positive result of this process there is no huge merit of the Canadian, as he himself believes.
This IOC complaint to the actions of the head of the WADA Anti-Doping Commission ended, and the draft authors tried to reduce the degree of tension, saying that they all need to cooperate: “Let’s agree that the previous cooperation between you and the Olympic movement was not as dense as it should be”. McLaren has repeatedly said that during the investigation he had no right to cross the line and began to draw conclusions about specific athletes, the IOC also asked him to go beyond what is permissible. The Committee expressed the desire for the Canadian to complete his work and help finish the investigation against the Russians. Stapp on this occasion figuratively remarked: “You gave us a corpse and a bloody knife, but did not name the murderer.”
Connected to the conversation sports director Keith McConnell removed this remark and made a few minor edits, after which the draft of the letter took the final form. As this exhausts the materials provided by Fancy Bears hackers, RT does not know whether McLaren received this letter and what his answer was.