Russia accepts Olympic Committee plan to retest athletes
Russia says it will accept an International Olympic Committee plan to retest all drug test samples given by Russian athletes at the 2012 and 2014 Olympics.
The IOC’s declaration Friday followed the publication of a report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren. This said that more than 1,000 Russian athletes, including medal winners at the London and Sochi games, had benefited from a state-backed campaign of doping and drug test cover-ups.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who was sports minister at the time of the 2012 and 2014 Olympics, tells Russian state agency R-Sport that “the IOC has now decided to retest all the samples; let them retest.”
Mutko also suggests he does not expect Russia to be barred from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.