The 2014 Sochi Olympics was tainted with a state-operated doping scandal, according to an investigative report from the New York Times.
The report indicated that dozens of Russian athletes, including at least 15 medal winners, were involved based on evidence from the director of the country’s anti-doping laboratory during the Sochi Olympics.
The Russian intelligence service allegedly teamed up with a testing agency in order to swap out the tainted urine of its athletes with clean urine taken months earlier. Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov estimated that as many as 100 urine samples were exchanged and none of the doping athletes were caught.
“We were fully equipped, knowledgeable, experienced and perfectly prepared for Sochi like never before,” Rodchenkov said. “It was working like a Swiss watch.”
Rodchenkov resigned from his position last November after the Moscow-based laboratory he oversaw stopped operating when its accreditation was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Rodchenkov then fled Russia and re-settled in Los Angeles.
He told the Times that it was up to him that Russian athletes won the most medals.
“All athletes are like small children,” Rodchenkov said. “They’ll put anything you give them into their mouths.”
Russia will host the World Cup in 2018.
