© Copyright – 2020 – Athletics Illustrated

It is not just the sports of cycling and athletics that are rife with doping and corruption, most other sports including weightlifting are prone too. In weightlifting, the use of doppelgangers as surrogates to provide “clean” urine samples is a practice that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may have just beaten.

WADA claims to have developed a way of detecting urine substitution at the point of collection. The method also detects the use of sample surrogates or doppelgängers, following a ground-breaking investigation into the sport of weightlifting.

“After more than three years examining the activities of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and the sport as a whole, WADA’s independent Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) Department today publishes the provisional findings of what is still an ongoing investigation,” states a WADA news release.

Urine swapping was the the focus of the Moscow Laboratory that was central in the investigation, charge and repeated suspensions of Russia from international competition. The urine swapping, storage and the alleged subsequent extortion attempts all started with Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who managed the Moscow Lab and built and managed the lab in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. He is now hiding in exile in the U.S. He is also the suject of the documentary How Russia Makes Champions and the Oscar Award-winning Icarus.

Rodchenkov has also written a self-penned autobiography titled The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Putin’s Secret Doping Empire.

As for the various investigations into weightlifting’s doping culture, there were four primary events, Investigations Arrow, Outreach, Heir and Extra.

This investigations focused not just on athletes but others who may have been involved in facilitating this deceptions. The investigations included doping control officers, coaches, other athlete support personnel and officials.

Read the full WADA explanation here>>