A Russian documentary alleges “double standards” in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and claims countries like the United States “abuse the system to disqualify foreign competitors who have high chances of beating athletes from their own countries.”
The documentary is called “The Doping Trap,” and has aired in two parts this summer. The first installment aired in Russia on July 18, the day WADA released its McLaren Report alleging massive anti-doping rule violations within Russia. The McLaren Report led to all of Russia’s athletes being put under strict standards in order to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and 7 Russian swimmers were pulled from competing in Rio.
Russia’s state-owned sports TV channel Match TV then aired “The Doping Trap, Part 2” on Sunday, July 31, continuing the allegations of double standards in international doping bans.
You can watch the 20-minute Part 2 in full above – English subtitles are available by clicking on the “CC” for closed captions.
Match TV announced the documentary in a press release, describing it this way:
The documentary taps prominent U.S. journalists and analysts to review mounting evidence that athletes are routinely profiled based on their international standings and national team affiliations for extremely prejudiced doping probes. Journalists discovered that some countries abuse the system to disqualify foreign competitors who have high chances of beating athletes from their own countries. The Doping Trap, Part 2, found that the U.S. is the worst offender, having entire sports leagues not tested for doping, and having U.S. anti-doping labs testing American athletes with an expressed ban for foreign observers to verify the results, a clear conflict of interest.
The 25-minute first installment of the documentary followed 4 Russian athletes it claims “have fallen under the WADA steamroller.” One of them is Yulia Efimova, the former world champion breaststroker who failed her second anti-doping test earlier this year, was originally cleared to compete without a suspension, but is now ineligible for Rio barring results of an appeal.
The Guardian covers part 1 of the documentary here.
Both parts of the documentary have aired on Match TV, a state-owned public television channel created in 2015 by a decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Can we just discuss swimming. Your political comments r off base
Why do you think this state sponsored doping system was created at first place? Doesn’t Russia have any other more important problems to deal with? Why to spend money, waste resources and to risk reputation knowingly doing illegal things? What is the payoff? Power. Sport was made a powerful political tool to support government. Therefore the political comments are not off base unfortunately.
This Russian documentary is nothing else but a low quality product of propaganda machine.
If somebody don’t understand Russian, but want to get some idea about this “documentary” then just follow US presidential complain. Watch candidates’ ads, especially Clinton’s one. It doesn’t matter that she was caught lying so many times – she is the pure innocence that is trying to survive bravely in this terrible world.
Crooked Hillary as Trump would say 🙂
Australian tv is currently showing some Brit doping docos . Every doco has an agenda otherwise why would anybody bother to do all that editing? I saw a bit of the one on last before I got annoyed. We all know bodybuilders use stuff & they spent too much time on the ‘vanity’ crime.
Maybe I should have watched further because there was something about wearing a prosthetic penis ! ( Recently I did post asking has anyone expereience of how close they watch) .
Thenblah blah the damage , then blah blah the new undetectable frontiers I only half heard .the rest. Tomorrow promises some Kenyans admitting doping . Bad Kenyans Good Mo Farah .The stuff they’re runni… Read more »
In a 1998 article by Associated Press writer Steve Wilstein, McGwire confessed to taking androstenedione,[28] an over-the-counter muscle enhancement product that had already been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the NFL, and the IOC. At the time, however, use of the substance was not prohibited by Major League Baseball and it was not federally classified as an anabolic steroid in the United States until 2004.[29]
Jose Canseco released a book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, in 2005. In it, he wrote positively about steroids and made various claims—among them, that McGwire had used performance-enhancing drugs since the 1980s and that Canseco had personally injected him with them.
In 2005, McGwire and Canseco… Read more »
Which part of ‘state sponsored doping’ do you not understand?
And this has WHAT to do about a “STATE SPONSORED DOPING SYSTEM” where the countries GOVERNMENT ran, financially backed and provided STATE POLICE PROTECTION for those involved in caring out the “STATE SPONSORED DOPING SYSTEM”????
You do understand the difference between a “STATE SPONSORED DOPING SYSTEM” and a country where people have the freedom to pursue their own actions, which may involve the use of illegal substances, don’t you? Because a person, or persons, within that FREE COUNTRY may be caught using illegal substances of their OWN FREE WILL, it does not equate to “STATE SPONSORED DOPING”. You gotta get that, before you can make any sort of defense against your “STATE SPONSORED DOPING SYSTEM” with statements such as the… Read more »
I can’t watch the whole video just too much BS. They are bringing up BS to try to divert attention away from their own doping scandal. Dragging up professional American baseball and football that has nothing to do with Olympic Sports or the Russian doping scandal is plain stupid, ridiculous, and illogical. I think that the truth is that all the money they spent on doping should have been spent on developing their athletes. They would have accomplished some of their goals appropriately. They should have believed in their own people.
Andrei, Quoting a few USA athletes who doped means nothing. All countries have individuals who try and cheat. The difference is that the USA has relentlessly pursued individuals and life banned or even jailed them (ie Armstrong and Marion Jones) while Russia has a State Sponsored doping program. Its a tragedy for all Russian athletes and sports lovers that the whole country is in denial and that the State, by supporting doping, results in athletes never actually knowing how good they really are. 11 Russian medals won at the London Olympics have already been re-allocated due to doping. I am sure those were not show on TV in Russia. I believe that many Sochi Winter Olympic medals will be stripped… Read more »
Very well said, Swimdad.
If Andrei Vorontsov is indeed Andrei Vorontsov I would expect something more substantial from him about situation in competitive swimming in Russia. Want we or not but we are under some informational pressure from English speaking media. There fore the view from the inside from the trustworthy person will be very welcome. I’m kind of disappointed with his comments. Maybe next time.
The problem is that it’s not always about individuals in USA. It doesn’t mean that Russians are not interested in solving doping problems inside their country, but it would be perhaps better to apply the same principles to all athletes, not just to Russians. “Wanting to avoid similar awkwardness at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, the USOC screened U.S. athletes at UCLA’s lab before the Games. Because the tests were informational and not official, of the 86 Americans who were positive, only two were denied spots on the Olympic team. During the final week of the Games, some 20 medal winners, many from track and field disciplines, tested positive. When a document linking athletes’ names to the urine samples… Read more »
“Russians are not interested in solving doping problems inside their country”
Why don’t Russia start by ceasing all STATE-SPONSORED AND STATE-FUNDED NATIONWIDE DOPING SYSTEM and also accept the punishment handed by IOC?
At the very least, NO OTHER country has in place such STATE-SPONSORED AND STATE-FINANCED DOPING SYSTEM.
What a load of BS. Who’s more competitive China or Russia?
Looks like Putin is taking notes from Kim Jong Il and North Korea. Pathetic.
It is more than pathetic. It is disgusting. Just as BACKSTROKERLCM said above, this is not surprising. I could go into a rage about the lies and excuses coming from the USSR…sorry, RUSSIA, but it would do no good. They have no sense of decency or fair play. They think they did nothing wrong? The WORLD knows the truth. You are a lying group of cheaters. Period. We had to put up with this garbage from East Germany and then China. We will NOT back down any longer. The future of fair play is at stake here. We must never be silent. Ever!
During the Cold War the Russian government became very good at manipulating the opinions of the public through propaganda. Apparently they haven’t lost that skill! The documentary is a great way to explain this embarrassing situation to the Russian people.
Putin is trying to revive the USSR without communis. how does a piece of propaganda like this intended for public brainwashing not surprise me.
Remember, Putin was the head of the KGB at one time.
and why would it not surprise me if trump was involved. this world is getting too crazy by the minute
Barry and Hillary would be more likely candidates for a gov’t cover up (read Benghazi)
Oh God, it’s happening. The time of each quad where politics infiltrates every aspect of my world, even my precious swimswam. Just put me in a sensory deprivation tank until it’s time to vote in November.
give me a break. the media makes alll those lies up about hillary
Jesus Mary and Joseph- please change this pic! I can’t look at at Efimovas p** one more time!
I could look at it all day.
– To drink or not to drink?
Don’t get angry with this guy. It is a tough decision. Let him a little bit more time to decide 😀