Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, known for his case of doping in Russian sports, presented a report on the situation in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), most of which is dedicated to the organization’s president Tamash Ayan. In particular, Maclaren accuses an 81-year-old Romanian functionary of embezzlement, concealing 40 positive doping tests and organizing a bribery system to obtain votes in the elections.

The reason for a new investigation was released in January this year, the German journalist Hajo Seppelt's film about the state of affairs in the IWF. It alleged cases of corruption, anti-doping rule violation and abuse of power by Ayan.

The release of the picture provoked a scandal in the sports community, after which the IWF executive committee suspended the president of the federation from work for 90 days (the deadline was extended until June) and appointed acting head Ursula Papandreou. Papandrea turned to McLaren with a proposal to investigate the situation in the organization. Tamash Ayan himself in mid-April announced his resignation.

The tyranny of cash

The Canadian report states that Ayan allegedly established an overly rigid management style in the international federation, which allowed him to commit acts of an illegal nature alone and avoid responsibility for it.

“The authoritarian leadership of Dr. Ayan led to defective and ineffective oversight of the organization by the executive board, which formed a distorted view of its position. This was achieved using various control mechanisms. As a result, Ayan ensured that no one except himself had an idea of ​​the state of affairs of the IWF as a whole. His main control mechanism was the tyranny of cash. This money was collected, withdrawn from accounts, remained unaccounted for, and they settled only with Ayan, ”writes Maclaren in the report.

One of the chapters of the report is devoted to corruption in the IWF. It is reported that under Tamash Ayan, it was allegedly common practice to pay fines for violating anti-doping rules with cash. At the same time, it is alleged that it was he who controlled the flow of funds and depositing to the organization’s bank account. According to the data presented in the report, about $ 10.4 million could remain unaccounted for.

Also in the report, Ayan is accused of meddling in the affairs of the anti-doping commission. According to the author of the document, the result of the activities of the president of the International Weightlifting Federation were numerous cases of concealment of positive doping tests.

For example, the report claims that the IWF did not take any action against 21 sportsmen from Turkey in whose samples traces of doping were found. According to McLaren, two of these weightlifters soon performed at the 2010 World Championships in Antalya and won gold and silver medals. According to Inside the Games portal, we can talk about the Olympic champion of Athens 2004 Nurjan Taylan (IWF was convicted of doping in 2011 and disqualified) and Sibel Ozkan (in 2016 she was deprived of the OI-2008 silver medal for doping).

Among other examples, the report mentions that the International Weightlifting Federation allegedly significantly delayed the proceedings against 18 Azerbaijani weightlifters, which allowed them to continue to compete, despite positive doping tests. In particular, the case of Valentine Christ is given. According to the author of the report, his test taken at the European Championships in April 2013 turned out to be positive, the IWF received notification in July, and in the fall and winter, the athlete spoke at the World Championships and competitions in Azerbaijan and was notified of a violation of the rules only after almost a year after being tested for illegal drugs.

In addition, the McLaren report says that Ayan allegedly was engaged in the purchase of votes in the election of the IWF president and members of the executive committee. Bribes for the necessary votes, allegedly ranged from $ 5 thousand to $ 30 thousand.

“Causes serious concern”

At the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), whose staff helped the investigation, after the release of the report, they indicated that they intend to carefully study it.

“WADA continues to consult with investigators from the McLaren team, who have declared their willingness to provide the agency with the evidence that they have gathered. As soon as WADA gets the opportunity to consider this evidence and sees the report in full, we will consider our next steps, ”the organization said in a statement.

The International Olympic Committee, in turn, noted that the content of the document "causes serious concern."

“According to the report, the IOC has been demanding the IWF to reform its anti-doping program over the past three years ... The International Olympic Committee will continue to support the efforts of the IWF and interim president (Ursula Papadrea. - RT ) to carry out a fundamental management reform. In addition, the IOC will contact WADA to determine if there are any doping cases related to the Olympic Games and take appropriate measures, ”the organization emphasized.

The president of the Russian Weightlifting Federation (FTAR) Maxim Agapitov noted that the information provided in the report raises a number of questions.

“One must, of course, understand what actually happened, in what format doping manipulations took place. This is all not clear. And why some athletes who are “pure”, for some reason, suddenly became violators of the rules. And for some reason, the athletes who were “dirty” continued to perform at international competitions and turned out to be “clean”. How to deal with this? ”Agapitov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

He also did not rule out that Tamasha Ayana could wait for a criminal trial.

“The disappearance of large sums of money was confirmed, many people suffered from his activities, many athletes' careers were broken ... The responsibility always lies with the captain of the ship, and he has been Ayan for the past 40 years. He never heard or listened to anyone, he drove alone. There was a totalitarian system, in the hands of one person was all power, all finances and all punitive instruments. And those who did not obey this system were severely punished. Including Russia, ”said Agapitov.

Tamash Ayan himself, after the release of the report, denied the charges against him. He said that McLaren did not give him the opportunity to familiarize himself with the conclusions in advance and give his answer to them. The 81-year-old functionary promised to do this after a full study of the report.

“I have been honoring the law, written and unwritten rules and practices of sports all my life. In accordance with the IWF Constitution, all necessary decisions were made by the executive committee. It was he who adopted the annual budget, and Congress approved the audit reports from independent Swiss auditors. Claims against me are unfounded. During the investigation, I went into full cooperation with Mr. Maclaren and his team, however, to my great regret, despite my request, I still did not receive information from them that would enable me to refute their allegations. They published a report without giving me a chance to explain, ”Ayan wrote in an open letter.

McLaren Previous Report

Recall that earlier McLaren was the head of the independent WADA commission on the doping case in Russian sport. 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 released a report accusing Russian sports. At the same time, Russia has repeatedly noted that there are a number of questions to this document.

“We both know the assessments, the most recent assessments of WADA officials, and our IOC colleagues regarding the fact that either the translations in the McLaren commission were inaccurate or there was insufficient evidence. And once again I want to emphasize, we have always talked about this: Russia has never been, is not, and I hope there will never be any state system for supporting doping, on the contrary, there will only be a fight against doping. And of course, this is also quite natural: claims that some scratches were revealed on some samples - we don’t understand what kind of evidence it is, because when we transferred these samples, there were no complaints, ” emphasized Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Nevertheless, that McLaren report had 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 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. Subsequently, on the basis of the report, the IOC conducted an investigation regarding the Winter Games in Sochi, after which it suspended the Russian Olympic Committee from participating in the Olympics in Pyeongchang.