Drugs, Hidden Cameras, and Whistleblowers: The Russian Doping Scandal

Yesterday, German public broadcaster ARD aired an hour-long film called Geheimsache Doping ("Top Secret Doping"). It was the sports documentary equivalent of an atomic bomb. The film includes interviews with multiple whistleblowers, hidden camera footage, and bank documents that show the Russian athletic federation and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency provided banned substances to athletes and covered up failed drug tests in multiple sports, throughout the entirety of the Russian athletic system. One of the whistleblowers, former discus thrower Evgenia Pecherina, alleges "the majority, 99%" of Russian athletes are doped.

Hajo Seppelt, the film's investigative journalist and narrator, said it "could be the biggest scandal in the history of athletics." He might be right.

The documentary begins as Seppelt meets whistleblowers Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian Anti-Doping Agency employee, and his wife Yulia Stepanova (née Rusanova), a middle-distance runner currently serving a 2013 doping ban. The couple alleges and provides evidence of state-sponsored doping. Soon, Seppelt is down a rabbit hole.

The evidence and allegations detailed in Geheimsache Doping include:

• Claims by the Stepanovs that Russian officials—specifically Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited Antidoping Center Moscow, and Sergei Portugalov, head of the Russian federation's medical department— provided banned substances and covered up positive tests in exchange for a percentage of winnings. And that athletes avoided testing while abroad by using aliases.
• Interviews with multiple former top Russian athletes talking candidly about the systematic doping of nearly the entire pool—"99%"— of Russian athletes.
• Undercover footage apparently showing Olympic 800m champion Maria Savinova receiving banned substances.
• Undercover footage that appears to show coaches giving Yulia Stepanova banned substances.
• Allegations that Liliya Shobukhova, a three-time Chicago Marathon winner, was extorted by the Russian athletics federation to the tune of 450,000 euros.
• Bank documents that tie Russian federation president Valentin Balakhnichev to a 300,000 euro refund Shobukhova received after testing positive for banned substances.

The documentary isn't the most riveting film ever produced. Many of the shots are of Seppelt leafing through documents and checking his email, but the weight of the unfolding evidence carries the viewer through. Much of that evidence was obtained and provided to Seppelt by Yulia Stepanova.

In his corresponding writeup, Seppelt details the risk undertaken by Stepanova, who "secretly recorded numerous audio and video recordings at great risk and made that data available to ARD. The recordings show the involvement of the head coach of Russian athletes, Alexey Melnikov, and the leading sports physician, Sergey Portugalov, in a drug procurement system and the cover-up of positive doping tests." The film ends with the news that the Stepanovs, who have an infant son, have fled Russia.

Several international athletic associations have already responded. International Association of Athletics Federations told the Chicago Tribune it already started an ethics investigation. Yesterday, the World Anti-Doping Agency published the following statement:

WADA has seen the German television documentary alleging systematic doping in Russia, and other breaches of the World Anti-Doping Code. WADA will ensure that all matters raised are fully investigated.

WADA has in fact already received some information and evidence of the type exposed in the documentary. All of that information has been passed to the appropriate independent body within the international federation, the IAAF. We will await the outcome of that independent body's deliberations.

Insofar as the particular allegations against Russian authorities and others are concerned, these will all be carefully scrutinized and if action is warranted, WADA will take any necessary and appropriate steps under the Code.

The WADA was aware of the allegations prior to Geheimsache Doping's airing. In the film's most dramatic scene, Seppelt flies to the WADA headquarters in Montreal and presents his evidence to David Howman, WADA director general, and other leaders, who appear shocked.

IOC has also responded, through spokesman Mark Adams, who told The AP that "Should there be anything affecting the International Olympic Committee and our code of ethics we will not hesitate take any and all action necessary."

Most Russian authorities refused comment when approached by ARD. Others denied wrongdoing or pled ignorance. Russian athletics has yet to respond to the film's broadcast.

What will the fallout look like? It's difficult to say this early. The Antidoping Center Moscow will almost certainly lose its accreditation. But the shakeup at the top of Russian athletics will probably go well beyond the Moscow center. As the AP reported, the Russian ADA, the Russian athletics federation, and the Moscow center are funded and administered through the Russian government. It seems like a division of power might be an important first step.

Russian athletes have long been suspected of organized doping. But surely nobody expected the mountain of evidence to pile this high.