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Russian doping cover-up 'helped 1,000 athletes cheat'

A Russian athlete holds up a flag at an Olympic event

More than 1,000 Russian athletes in 30 summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic sports benefited from a systematic doping cover-up, including many medalists from London 2012.

An investigation for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) claims positive tests were concealed at the London Games, the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the 2013 World Athletics Championships.

London 2012 was corrupted by Russian athletes on an "unprecedented scale" , said head of the investigation Professor Richard McClaren.

The investigation's findings allege "an institutional conspiracy across winter and summer sports athletes who participated with Russian officials within the Ministry of Sport ... along with the FSB (Russia's security service) for the purpose of manipulating doping controls".

These included 15 medalists from London, and two Sochi 2014 athletes who won four gold medals.

Six winners of Paralympic medals at Sochi were also found to have samples tampered with.

Prof McClaren, announcing his findings in London, said the athletes were "not acting individually but within an organised infrastructure".

He added: "It is impossible to know how deep and far back the conspiracy goes.

"For years international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by the Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field.

"Sports fans and spectators have been deceived."

Prof McClaren published evidence of how supposedly secure bottles had been tampered with, and dirty samples replaced with clean urine that in some cases contained mixed DNA. Some samples were "physiologically impossible".

In one case, samples supposed to belong to two female ice hockey players were found to contain male DNA.

The investigations examined allegations from the former Moscow anti-doping laboratory director that dirty samples were replaced with clean urine in order to avoid detection.

In Sochi this involved a sophisticated operation by the FSB.

It developed a system to remove the supposedly "tamper-proof" sample bottles, and drilled a hole in the wall to pass bottles into the official anti-doping laboratory.

Analysis of the samples and sample bottles revealed the extent and sophistication of the system.

Investigators recreated the technique for opening the bottles using a metal probe that lifted a safety catch, but left tell-tale scratches and marks.

This provided "conclusive proof" that bottles had been tampered with, supported by analysis of the samples given by athletes.

They also found salt and even coffee granules had been added to clean samples to recreate the physical constituents of the dirty samples that were replaced.

The investigators have also published emails from the Russian sports ministry instructing officials to "save" specific athletes who tested positive, and not protect others.

UK Anti-Doping head Nicole Sapstead said the revelations were "hugely significant" and called for tough penalties for countries that sponsor doping.

"WADA needs support and the ability to apply the right sanctions so that this type of situation cannot happen again," she said.

Russia's sports ministry has denied accusations of a state cover-up, while the new head of the country's anti-doping fight has said the report is out of date.

Veteran Olympic official Vitaly Smirnov said: "Since the time that is under discussion, Russia has changed greatly and made serious steps toward creating the most effective system in the world for fighting the evil of doping."

Paula Radcliffe, the British marathon world record holder, told Sky News that Russia had "committed a huge act of fraud" on the Olympics and should be barred from competition until they could show things had changed.

"They have to look at this report," said Radcliffe. "They have to accept and take responsibly for what they've done, the fraud they've committed, and make severe assurances that things will be improved moving forward before they should be admitted back into international competition."

Radcliffe also said it was vital for confidence in all sports that anti-doping bodies got a "massive" injection of funds to help them properly root out drug cheats.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said anyone involved in the "sophisticated manipulation system" should be banned from the Olympics for life.

The IOC is planning to review all samples provided by Russian athletes who competed in London and Sochi.