A bomb dropped on the athletic community today as an Independent Commission Investigation uncovered widespread state-sponsored doping involving Russian athletes. Richard W. Pound, Independent Commission President, submitted the 323 page report on Monday, November 9, 2015 to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Craig Reedie. The findings of the report have lead to recommendations of ten lifetime bans. Five athletes, four coaches, and a medical doctor are included in the ten recommendations of the Independent Committee.

FULL REPORT FROM INDEPENDENT COMMISSION

Russian athletes have been caught doping in alarming numbers. In 2013 Russia had 225 doping violations. This accounted for 11.5% of all reported violations globally. Wrestling had the third most violations accounting for 32 of the 225. The 32 wrestling violations amounted to 48% of the world’s 68 total wrestling violations. Track and Field led the way with 42 violations. In comparison the United States had 43 violations across all sports in 2013, accounting for 2.2% of the world total.


*Graphic by New York Times

To dig a little deeper we went to WADA's Anti-Doping Rules Violation (ADRV) 2013 Report. The total ADRVs are attributed to the total when "A decision was rendered and an ADRV was recorded against the athlete following a full disciplinary process. The sanction was either a reprimand or a period of ineligibility." Below is the full wrestling breakdown by country.

Sparking WADA Into Action
German television channel ARD aired the documentary “Top Secret Doping: How Russia makes its Winners”, on December 3, 2014. The commissioned report stated that the documentary alleged a “sophisticated and well established system of state-sponsored doping within the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF).”

WADA immediately formed the Independent Commission (IC) in response to the allegations. The IC was formed to conduct an independent investigation into “doping practices; corrupt practices around sample collection and results management; and, other ineffective administration of anti-doping processes that implicate Russia, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, and other members of athletes entourages; as well as the accredited laboratory based in Moscow and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).”

As a result of the investigation the IC has recommended the following actions:
-sanction packages for five athletes, four coaches, and a medical doctor
-additional investigation into suspicious cases to be investigated by WADA
-declare ARAF and RUSADA to be Code non-compliant
-withdraw its accreditation of the Moscow laboratory as soon as possible
-remove the Director of the Moscow laboratory permanently from his position
-keep the Moscow lab from acting independently
-recommend that the IAAF suspend ARAF


What Does This Mean For Wrestling?
Initially nothing, but you have to believe that all Russian athletes will be under the microscope leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The widespread culture, and involvement of the Russian Sports Ministry has to raise some questions regarding PEDs across all sports and athletes in Russia.

The amount of reported positive tests in wrestling rivaled that of the Russian track and field team during the 2013 testing window, 32 wrestling violations compared to 42 track and field. This is alarming when you start to consider the whistleblower testimony from the investigation, as well as RUSADA’s actions that are detailed in the report.

Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova provides a detailed account of the supply chain of PEDs as well as the RUSADA corruption that lead to avoidance of out-of-competition testing. False names were used in foreign training camps to prevent some of this testing. Are the same violations occurring across all Russian sports?

Evgeniya Pecherin, a well known discus thrower, estimated that 99% of the National track and field athletes are doping. Staggering, if the estimation is close to true. The ability to circumnavigate positive tests shows deeply rooted corruption and cover-up tactics.

Russian Track Coach Oleg Popov pointed out that National Team athletes had no choice but to dope. Otherwise, they were “out” (removed from the team).

An anonymous athlete provided the most troubling statement as I wondered if the corruption had made its way to wrestling. The athlete stated that you shouldn’t complain about any ongoing practices within the National Team. “Leave it, otherwise you might accidently get in a car accident.”


United World Wrestling To The Rescue?
As the news was breaking this morning about Russian Track and Field doping, the World Governing body, United World Wrestling, almost concurrently issued a press release that their President, Nenad Lalovic, was appointed to World Anti-Doping Agency’s Board of Directors.

We've already seen the leadership skills from Lalovic in the form of both saving Olympic wrestling and his subsequent appointment to the International Olympic Committee board.