THE PRESIDENT OF Athletics Ireland has admitted it will take a number of years for the sport to recover from the damage caused by today’s disturbing revelations.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published a damning report outlining evidence of systematic cheating by the Russian Athletics Federation.

The independent commission, headed by former WADA chief Richard Pound, has recommended that the IAAF suspend Russia from competition after its investigation into the scandal which has rocked athletics.

WADA has called for five Russian athletes and five coaches to be handed lifetime bans, suggesting the 2012 London Olympics were ‘sabotaged’ by the presence of doped athletes.

In a statement released this afternoon, Athletics Ireland president Ciarán Ó Catháin said the report paints a ‘deeply disturbing picture’ of the sport.

“For the sake of all the clean and hard working athletes within our sport, the priority is now for the IAAF to show strong leadership in introducing an anti doping system which fully supports strong anti-doping federations and countries and one which values honest and clean athletes and coaches,” he said.

“For a country like Ireland, we need to have confidence that a level playing field exists in terms of each nation’s approach to doping and the IAAF interaction with our organisations.

“It is also clearly now time for the IAAF to use independently vetted drug testing procedures and also to consider the introduction of lifetime bans for drug cheats.”

The 325-report accuses Russia of sponsoring, covering up, and perpetuating a culture of cheating among athletes and coaches across all levels of the sport. Pound admitted the Moscow government must have been involved.

The five main findings are:

1. A deeply rooted culture of cheating — “The investigation indicates that the acceptance of cheating at all levels is widespread and of long standing. Many of the more egregious offenders appear to be coaches who, themselves, were once athletes and who work in connection with medical personnel.”
2. Exploitation of athletes — “As a result of this mindset, an open and accepted series of unethical behaviours and practices has become the norm. In addition, the pursuit of medals and exploitation of athletes for financial gain is well pronounced across Russian athletics. Russian athletes were often willing participants. However, there are documented cases where athletes who did not want to participate in ‘the program’ were informed they would not be considered as part of the federation’s national team for competition.”
3. Confirmed athletes cheating — “This report outlines consistent and systematic use of performance enhancing drugs by many Russian athletes. This report also identified a high percentage of athletes who were unwilling to participate in the [independent commission] investigation.”
4. Confirmed involvement by doctors, coaches, and laboratory personnel — “This report confirms allegations that some Russian doctors and/or laboratory personnel acted as enablers for systematic cheating along with athletics coaches. This report also identifies the intentional and malicious destruction of more than 1,400 samples by Moscow laboratory officials after receiving written notification from WADA to preserve target samples.”
5. Corruption and bribery within IAAF — “This report also identifies corruption and bribery practices at the highest levels of international athletics, evidence of which has been transmitted to Interpol for appropriate investigation.”

Athletics Ireland insist its anti-doping system is ‘clean, honest and independent.’

“We are fortunate in Ireland that the anti-doping system in place is run independently by Sport Ireland and is recognised as being extremely robust and procedurally fair,” Ó Catháin continued.

“While every country can have individuals who will cheat the system, we are confident that the culture of our athletes and coaches which is honest and clean, allied with the independent system of anti-doping in Ireland, ensures that Irish athletes can and do hold their heads high and proud on the international stage.”

Interpol – the international police body – later confirmed it would co-ordinate a worldwide investigation led by France into alleged doping and corruption in athletics on the back of the damning report.

It’s been described as ‘an extraordinarily dark day for athletics’ but IAAF President Sebastian Coe has vowed to get to the bottom of the widespread doping epidemic and clean up the sport.

Additional reporting by Business Insider.

Dark day for athletics as new doping report plunges the sport into crisis