Richard McLaren’s final report into doping in Russia, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), will be released on December 9 at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London, it was officially confirmed today.
The report will be unveiled by Canadian lawyer McLaren in a press conference at 11.15 a.m. in the British capital.
Described as an “extended mandate,” it will then be published in full on the WADA website.
“On May 18, Professor McLaren was appointed by the WADA as the Independent Person to head an investigative team charged with determining the facts with respect to the allegations of manipulation of doping control samples and other allegations made by Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Director of the WADA-accredited Moscow Laboratory,” a statement today said.
“The investigation was launched to establish what actions must be taken in the best interest of clean sport and clean athletes.”
McLaren produced his initial findings at a press conference in Toronto in July shortly before the beginning of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
It investigated claims, first made by Rodchenkov in the New York Times, that Russia had operated a state-sponsored scheme during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
He claimed an operation was put in place where tainted stories were illegally switched for clean ones in a clandestine night-time operation.
It is alleged that up to 15 Russian medal winners are implicated – with McLaren expected to focus on this in his investigation.
He is also thought to be exploring allegations of similar activities at other events held in Russia, including the 2013 World Athletics and 2015 World Swimming Championships in Moscow and Kazan respectively.
WADA recommended Russia be handed a blanket ban from Rio 2016 as a result of the allegations, although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected this and instead handed responsibility to individual International Federations.
The final report will be unveiled the day after the conclusion of an IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne.
McLaren’s findings are expected to form the basis of two separate IOC investigations conducted by French judge and IOC Ethics Commission vice-chair Guy Canivet and by Swiss IOC member Denis Oswald.
It could then lead to many other repercussions, including winter sporting events being removed from Russia.
By Nick Butler
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.