Doping investigator’s final Russian report is months away

McLaren never set a deadline for his final report, though many expected progress before the winter sports season starts to peak in November.

“It’s urgent to get the report out as quickly as possible,” McLaren said.

After the powerful first report was published, the IOC advised winter sports bodies to “freeze their preparations for major events in Russia” in 2016 and find host cities in other countries.

That interim order affected figure skating and ski jumping before a scheduled review by the IOC executive board at a Dec. 6-8 meeting.

McLaren’s new timetable on Friday suggests Russian-hosted events in early 2017 are at risk, including world championships in bobsled and skeleton plus World Cup events in at least five winter disciplines.

Though his final report is “at least several months away,” McLaren’s could send evidence within weeks to sports governing bodies if it suggests doping by individuals.

“We haven’t reported any of it to any sporting federation at this stage. When it’s done, we will,” McLaren said earlier, on the sidelines of a sports ethics conference hosted by FIFA.

WADA appointed McLaren in May to investigate claims made in American media by the laboratory director who oversaw drug testing at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The Russian official alleged a conspiracy by state authorities to cover up athletes’ doping and help Russia top the medals table at its home Winter Games.

McLaren delivered a damning 103-page document which detailed a plot to swap out Russian athletes’ doping-tainted urine samples from 2011 through 2015.

In July, McLaren asked for more time to complete his investigation.

“We will also report on information we had that we didn’t have time to analyze in the last report, and see if it either makes the picture bigger, clearer, or changes it,” he said Friday.

Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Doping investigator’s final Russian report is months away

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