Head of RUSADA: Russians’ doping tests could have been changed to protect athletes who went to power

The head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, Yuri Ganus, said at a conference in Colorado that thousands of changes could have been made to the database of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory to protect athletes who became officials. It is reported by The New York Times.

In an interview with Interfax, Yuri Ganus said that "this was done for athletes who now occupy high positions." He noted that this is his guess.

In September, experts from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found traces of manipulations with the database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, which were submitted to WADA for study. We are talking about a database containing doping samples of Russian athletes taken from 2012 to 2015.

The World Anti-Doping Agency gave Russia three weeks to provide an explanation.

• The Telegraph newspaper wrote in September, citing sources, that due to the manipulation of the database of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, Russia could be suspended from participation in the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.