UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — In September, Fancy Bears hacker group published World Anti-Doping Agency documents, which revealed that many prominent athletes including Rafael Nadal, Simone Biles, Serena and Venus Williams, had been allegedly using banned drugs.
Delivering a speech at the Sport for Development meeting at the United Nations, Churkin noted that it was unacceptable to ignore the information that anti-doping agencies covertly approved the use of superpotent substances by the athletes who had been winning major competitions.
The statements about severe diseases of those sportsmen contradicted logic and sounded especially hypocritical amid the ban of all Russian Paralympic athletes from the 2016 Summer Paralympics only on suspicion of taking banned substances, Churkin added.
In July, a WADA commission led by McLaren presented a report based on the investigation results, in which Russia was accused of running a state-wide doping program, urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian team. The IOC instead opted to let individual sports federations decide on the matter.
As a result, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) banned the Russian athletes from taking part in international competitions including the 2016 Summer Olympics. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) later banned all Russian Paralympic athletes from the 2016 Summer Paralympics and the 2018 Winter Games.
