CONSPIRACY

Lab Chief: Russia Doped in 2014 Olympics

Cocktail ensured Russians bagged most games.

The director of Russia’s anti-doping lab now claims that at least 15 Olympic medal-winners doped as part of a plan to dominate the 2014 Games in Sochi. Grigory Rodchenkov told The New York Times that he crafted a cocktail of banned chemical substances—including three drugs—that enabled an intricate plot. Russia won most of the competitions, and no athletes were caught using the banned pharmaceuticals. Rodchenkov said the majority of the athletes involved were on the country’s bobsled and ski teams. He explained that lab technicians used urine that was sampled months earlier to replace the tainted ones, then destroyed the bad samples. Russia’s sports minister called Rodchenkov’s claims “a continuation of the information attack on Russian sport,” the newspaper wrote.