Grigory Mikhailovich Rodchenkov

Grigory Michailowitsch Rodchenkov ( Russian Григорий Михайлович Родченков ; born October 24, 1958 in Moscow , RSFSR ) is a former director of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center, a laboratory established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in November 2015 was suspended. In 2016 he fled to the United States, where he became a whistleblower on the practices of doping in sport in Russia.

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Head of the Russian Anti-Doping Laboratory

Rodchenkov studied chemistry at the Moscow Lomonosov University . From 2006 he headed the Anti-Doping Center in Moscow, the only laboratory in Russia accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He and his sister, the runner Marina Rodtschenkow , were investigated in 2011 for the illegal sale of drugs. According to the report by Russian state broadcaster 360tv , Rodchenkov was hospitalized in March 2011 after attempting suicide. A schizotypical personality disorder was alleged in court, which is exacerbated by stress. The charges against him were eventually dropped, but his sister was sentenced to a year and a half in prison.

Since Rodchenkov was still formally laboratory manager of the test laboratory for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he received an official personal invitation in 2012 to visit the British doping test laboratory in Harrow for the London 2012 Summer Olympics . This invitation from London may have saved his health and life. Since the Russian side was very interested in obtaining information about Western test laboratories, and since the invitation had been sent to Rodchenkov personally, Rodchenkov was acquitted of the allegations and released from the psychiatric treatment he was in. The British laboratory manager David Cowan was later said not happy that Rodchenkov was given access to all information and details about the test procedures in London, but could not do anything about it, as he was a member of the medical commission of the IOC and therefore all information is disclosed to him had to.

The main anabolic steroid used for doping by Russian athletes at the time was Turinabol . At this point in time, however, Rodchenkov must have already realized that the systematic doping of Russian athletes could not go unnoticed, as he himself had recently published a laboratory test procedure for the detection of long-term turinabol metabolites. Ultimately, of the 140 athletes who were disqualified for doping in London, more than a third came from Russia. Rodchenkov was also the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi . Meanwhile, the Duchess Cocktail , which contained a mixture of three anabolic steroids ( Oxandrolone , Metenolone and Trenbolone ), was used by Russian athletes . As later became known through whistleblowers and the Oscar-winning documentation Ikarus , the Russian domestic secret service FSB had developed a method of opening the apparently securely closed sample tubes without being noticed. In Rodchenkov's test laboratory there was a secret hole in the wall through which “dirty” urine samples could be exchanged for “clean” ones. Due to the great success of Russian athletes in Sochi, Rodchenkov was awarded the Order of Friendship . Rodchenkov discussed doping during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi with whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov , who recorded 15 hours of their conversations without Rodchenkov's knowledge.

The massive doping came to light shortly afterwards through Russian whistleblowers, German investigative documentaries (e.g. the ARD documentary Secret Doping - How Russia Makes Its Winners ) and the documentary Ikarus . In November 2015, the laboratory was suspended by WADA. In an official report initiated by WADA, Russian authorities were accused of systematically promoting doping in Russia. According to the report, samples that had systematically tested positive in Rodchenkov's laboratory were withheld and 1417 samples were hastily destroyed.

Escape from Russia

Fearing for his life, Rodchenkov fled to the United States shortly after the scandal became apparent. Rodchenkov then became a whistleblower himself and revealed his knowledge. Since then he has lived under a covert identity in an unknown place. Shortly after his escape to the United States, on February 3-14, 2016, two former heads of the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, Vyacheslav Zinev and Nikita Kamayev, died in unexplained circumstances. In an email to journalist David Walsh , Kamayev had previously announced his intention to write a “book on the true history of the pharmacology of sport and doping in Russia since 1987”, which he “as a young scientist in a secret laboratory of the sports medicine institute of the USSR “. The cause of death of the 52-year-old Kamayev was given as "heart failure", which some of his acquaintances questioned, as he had never complained about heart problems.

In July 2016, the McLaren Report , an independent investigation commissioned by WADA, reported incriminating evidence after conducting witness interviews, examining thousands of documents, cyber analysis of hard drives, forensic analysis of urine collection bottles, and laboratory analysis of individual athlete samples Russia and confirmed Rodchenkov's information.

Reactions

After the Olympic Games in Sochi, Rodchenkov received the Order of Friendship on January 30, 2015, from the Deputy Minister of Sports, Pavel Kolobkov . In 2016, after the doping allegations were widely reported, Putin called Rodchenkov a "man with a scandalous reputation". In 2018, Putin became even more explicit and described Rodchenkov as an “idiot with obvious problems”.

Documentary Icarus

Rodchenkov was featured in the 2017 Netflix documentary Icarus , directed by Bryan Fogel . In it Rodchenkov describes his involvement in the systematic evasion of anti-doping tests.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Natalia Mariantschik: 10 фактов о Григории Родченкове (10 facts about Grigory Rodchenkov). sport-express.ru, May 13, 2016, accessed August 11, 2020 (Russian). 
2. ↑ Doctor who has accused Russia in doping was treated in mental hospital. 360tv, March 12, 2016, accessed on August 11, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} The 'real' threat to Russia's former doping mastermind. BBC News, July 31, 2020, accessed August 11, 2020 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Armen Keteyian: Russian doping at Sochi Winter Olympics exposed . In: 60 Minutes / CBS News , May 8, 2016. 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Rebecca R. Ruiz, Michael Schwirtz: Russian Insider Says State-Run Doping Fueled Olympic Gold. The New York Times , May 12, 2016, accessed August 12, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Doping, a secret matter: "How Russia makes its winners" - Documentary Sportschau ARD 2014. December 4, 2014, accessed on August 12, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Adrian Lobe: The mysterious death of the man from the secret laboratory. Die Welt, February 25, 2016, accessed on August 11, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Second death in two weeks. Deutschlandfunk, February 16, 2016, accessed on August 11, 2020 . 
9. ↑ tass.ru: Юрист: Григорий Родченков может лишиться ордена Дружбы только через суд . Информационное агентство России. July 11, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
10. ↑ Russian doping: Who is whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov? . In: BBC News , July 19, 2016. 
11. ↑ Putin: Charges against Russian athletes based on words of 'imbecile with obvious problems'. TASS , January 30, 2018, accessed August 11, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Patrick Ryan: Netflix's wild documentary 'Icarus' exposes Russian doping scandal . Retrieved August 5, 2017.