From Inside the Games
A group of 12 Russian athletes, including the 2012 Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov, have been suspended for periods ranging from two to eight years after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled against them.
The athletes banned also included Svetlana Shkolina, winner of the high jump at the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships and the bronze medallist at London 2012.
It is the first case of CAS issuing disciplinary procedures since it replaced the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) in hearing cases following their suspension by the IAAF.
The cases are based mainly upon evidence gathered by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren and the the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
The cases “against several Russian athletes, in particular to the effect that these athletes participated in and/or benefited from anabolic steroid doping programmes and benefited from specific protective methods (washout schedules) in the period 2012 (Olympic Games in London) – 2013 (World Championships in Moscow),” CAS said in a statement today.
This method was invented by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the Moscow Laboratory, who claims he invented a fast-acting steroid “cocktail” that could be swished orally and would “wash out” of athletes’ systems quickly.
Rodchenkov has claimed he came up with the scheme of the Government in Moscow before fleeing the country to the United States, where he later became the main whistleblower for authorities investigating allegations of Russian state-sponsored doping.