Professor Returns: McLaren Assigned to Investigate Weightlifting Doping Scandal

Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, known for the doping case in Russian sports, will take up a new large investigation in the near future. This time he will check the work of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).

The fact that the Canadian professor was invited to lead a new independent investigation, said Ursula Papandrea - the head of the organization, appointed at the time of the removal of its president Tamasha Ayana.

The Canadian candidate was approved by the IWF Executive Committee, and next week the lawyer, along with his assistants, will begin work. The Federation itself will conduct its internal investigation.

McLaren will have to study the accusations against Tamash Ayan voiced in the film, which was shown on the German television channel ARD in early January. Immediately after its release on the screens, the 81-year-old president of IWF, who headed the organization since 2000, was suspended from work for 90 days.

The authors of the film, Hajo Zeppelt, Nick Butler and Grit Hartman, accused the Hungarians of corruption and the fact that he repeatedly covered athletes who used doping. They claim that more than 700 cases of anti-doping rule violations have been identified during his work at the IWF. Also, from 2008 to 2017, half of the 450 medalists allegedly did not pass the test for the use of illegal drugs.

The authors of the film drew attention to the fact that for many years the observance of anti-doping rules was monitored by the Hungarian agency HUNADO. They also argue that the athletes used supposedly pure doubles of these athletes to test the use of prohibited substances, and when someone tested positive, the federation paid doping officers for silence.

Finally, journalists reported the large amount that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) transferred to IWF accounts - more than $ 23 million. Moreover, as specified in the film, the accounts were not listed in the organization’s official accounting. The authors of the film also reported that they allegedly have documents confirming these facts.

After the release of the film, the IOC issued a statement in which it denied all these allegations, calling them serious and alarming. WADA, in turn, announced its intention to contact the International Weightlifting Federation in connection with the allegations voiced in the film.

The other day, the accusation against Ayan was also made by the head of the Russian Weightlifting Federation Maxim Agapitov. According to him, the president of the IWF sent an official invitation to the national federations to attend the next congress of the organization, thereby violating the conditions for his removal.

“The person who is under investigation should stay away from the management of the organization, and not sign its official documents. Now this right belongs to Ursula Papandrea, who was assigned to this role. I am talking about a letter that Ayan sent to national federations. Under it is his signature, which, in my opinion, is a violation of the conditions for his removal. This confuses national federations. It becomes unclear what decision the executive committee made then and what follows from it. It seems that we have two presidents, ”Agapitov said in an interview with TASS.

Recall that it was McLaren who was the head of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the case of doping in Russian sports. The reason for his investigation was the statements of the former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, who accused Russian athletes of the mass use of illegal drugs before, during, and also after the Olympic Games in Sochi.

In 2016, McLaren published a special report, which led to a number of consequences for Russian sports - the published data became the reason for the suspension of the Russian Paralympic Committee and the inadmissibility of a number of athletes to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Subsequently, on the basis of the report, the IOC conducted an investigation regarding the Winter Olympics in Sochi, after which it suspended the Russian Olympic Committee from participating in competitions in Pyeongchang.