Swiss anti-doping chief backs Russian whistleblower

The head of the Lausanne's anti-doping laboratory where Olympic samples are kept, Martial Saugy has told AFP that Russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov would have no reason to lie.

Former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, Rodchenkov, has gone into hiding in the United States after alleging that Russian secret service and government officials subverted samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics to hide failed tests by Russian athletes.

Russia has strongly denied the claims but the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) is investigating. 

"I know Gregory Rodchenkov well and deep down, rather than from a technical perspective, I ask myself a question from a psychological perspective: what could Rodchenkov have to gain from inventing such a story," Saugy told AFP.

"I was in Sochi, in the analytical department alongside around 20 scientists. Very clearly, not one of the experts there had any suspicions.

"For all the experts in Sochi, this claim is on the one hand shocking and a complete surprise."

Asked if it was possible for the scientists to see doping samples being switched, Saugy, who was at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Sochi, said: "No, I wouldn't have been able to see it because the laboratory scientists aren't there to monitor the interaction at the reception (of the samples)."The organising committees, even the IOC, don't ask us to do that job. We're there to scientifically validate results -- essentially, we are there to make sure there are no false positives or false negatives."

Saugy said the "weak link is the person who receives the samples".

"We've seen in Russia, because it's already been shown, that you can have exchanges or manipulation which takes place at the point of interchange, all the interfaces are vulnerable."

Saugy, who has also worked with the International Cycling Union on detecting the banned blood booster EPO, and with FIFA on the use of anabolic steroids, indicated that corruption is possible.

"The weakness is perhaps based on how big the proposed envelope (bribe) is," he said.

"Before we worked quite a lot on the good faith of the staff. You need to systematically have a double check -- a camera that films. In the anti-doping battle we need to push the boundaries."

All doping samples from Olympics are stored at the Lausanne laboratory. The 31 suspected new failures from the 2008 Beijing Games are being tested there. The results are expected to be announced in early June.

Russia has acknowledged that 14 of the cases are Russian competitors.

Saugy will next month take over an anti-doping research centre in Lausanne to help sporting federations. The new centre was inaugurated on Wednesday night.

Olivier Niggle, future director general of WADA, said at the inauguaration that everyone would have to wait for the results of the agency's inquiry before deciding action.

"We will see if this is just anti-doping or whether it goes further because you have to keep things in perspective," said Niggli.

"Anti-doping organisations will never be able to fight equally with the power of a state or its secret services."

According to the New York Times, US prosecutors are also investigating Russian doping in international sport.

Source : AFP