In a "blow to the credibility of Russia's denials that it operated state-backed Olympic doping," an IOC judging panel "endorsed a key whistleblower and the investigator who exposed the plot," according to Graham Dunbar of the AP. Orchestrated cheating at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games was "a conspiracy which infected and subverted the Olympic Games in the worst possible manner," an IOC commission prosecuting "a slew of Russian cases" said on Monday. Former Moscow and Sochi laboratory Dir Grigory Rodchenkov was a "truthful witness," the panel said in "publishing its first detailed verdict on the same day it sanctioned five more Russian athletes to bring the total to 19." Rodchenkov is living in the U.S. under FBI protection as a cooperating witness. The IOC panel, chaired by Denis Oswald, agreed that investigator Richard McLaren -- appointed by WADA to verify Rodchenkov's claims to U.S. media in May '16 -- "proved the existence of a doping conspiracy beyond reasonable doubt." The public vindication of Rodchenkov and McLaren, each "repeatedly denounced" by state authorities in Russia, "will fuel speculation" that the IOC exec board meeting next Tuesday "should ban Russia's team" from the PyeongChang Olympics. A final IOC judgment on whether the Russian state ultimately corrupted the Winter Games that cost $51B to "prepare for and stage" should come next week (AP, 11/28).
RODCHENKOV IMPLICATED: The BBC reported a Russian inquiry concluded Rodchenkov "personally supplied the drugs." The government investigations unit said that athletes "did not know" Rodchenkov had given them substances. The Investigative Committee of Russia said in a statement, "It was established that Rodchenkov personally supplied the athletes and coaches with medicines whose proven features were not known to them but which later were established to constitute performance-enhancing drugs." It added that he "destroyed the athletes' samples and then accused Russia" of implementing a doping program. Russia has "always maintained that Rodchenkov, and not the state, was involved" (BBC, 11/28).
