La World Anti-Doping Agency proscioglie gli atleti russi calunniati per doping.

Giuseppe Sandro Mela.

2017-09-13.

«Calunniate, calunniate, calunniate: qualcosa resterà sempre»

Questa frase del buon Voltaire ha fatto epoca, anche se molti autori negano l’evidenza asserendo che quel galantuomo non la avrebbe mai detta.

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«La bandiera russa non sventola in un’Olimpiade da Sochi 2014»

Tutte calunnie senza nessuna prova probante.

Questi erano i titoli del The New York Times all’epoca.

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Russian Doctor Explains How He Helped Beat Doping Tests at the Sochi Olympics

U.S. Athletes Weigh a Boycott Over Russian Doping DEC. 4, 2016

Russian Sports Agent and U.S. Marathon Officials Under Federal Investigation

Russian Sports Agent and U.S.

Report Shows Vast Reach of Russian Doping: 1,000 Athletes, 30 Sports

«LONDON — International sports’ antidoping watchdog on Friday laid out mountainous evidence that for years Russian officials orchestrated a doping program at the Olympics and other competitions that involved or benefited 1,000 athletes in 30 sports. The findings intensified pressure on the International Olympic Committee to reassess Russia’s medals from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and penalize the nation ahead of the 2018 Winter Games.

The evidence, published by the World Anti-Doping Agency, was the coda to a set of investigations led by the Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, who issued a damning report in July that prompted more than 100 Russian athletes to be barred from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.»

Olympics History Rewritten: New Doping Tests Topple the Podium

Russian Insider Says State-Run Doping Fueled Olympic Gold

«LOS ANGELES — Dozens of Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, including at least 15 medal winners, were part of a state-run doping program, meticulously planned for years to ensure dominance at the Games, according to the director of the country’s antidoping laboratory at the time.

The director, Grigory Rodchenkov, who ran the laboratory that handled testing for thousands of Olympians, said he developed a three-drug cocktail of banned substances that he mixed with liquor and provided to dozens of Russian athletes, helping to facilitate one of the most elaborate — and successful — doping ploys in sports history.

It involved some of Russia’s biggest stars of the Games, including 14 members of its cross-country ski team and two veteran bobsledders who won two golds.»

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La Wada, World Anti-Doping Agency, ha rilasciato il Report «Operation Puerto» [Versione pdf]

«In early May 2017, the English translation of all of the documents found on the Evidence Disclosure Package (EDP) website, the website that contains all of the evidence made available by the Independent Person (IP) Team, was completed. This allowed all relevant Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs) who had athletes implicated by the IP Report and falling under their authority to consult the available evidence in an understandable manner in order to assess whether an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) could be asserted against any athlete who may have benefited from sample manipulation.

Since this time, WADA has received decisions in relation to 96 athletes from nine different sports.

With the exception of one case for which an ADRV will be asserted against an athlete following reanalysis of samples seized from the Moscow Laboratory by WADA that produced an Adverse Analytical Finding, no other ADRVs have been asserted. In collaboration with external legal counsel, WADA has reviewed each decision received to date in detail, including the evidence available for each athlete on the EDP website. For the other 95 cases, the IFs determined there was insufficient evidence to assert ADRVs and, following our individual evaluation of each case, which was confirmed by external counsel, we support their assessments. The available evidence was insufficient to support the assertion of an ADRV against these 95 athletes. In addition, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who is an important witness that can support the findings of the IP Report, is unavailable to testify due to circumstance beyond WADA or the IP Team’s control. In addition, we were recently informed the date on which he could be available to testify is unforeseeable.»

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Si aprono adesso due problematiche.

La prima è la problematica legale.

«Per arrivare a questo risultato Wada (traducendo, analizzando, verificando dati e campioni) ha impiegato quasi un anno. E non è un caso che proprio la settimana scorsa tre ciclisti russi esclusi dai Giochi, supportati da un grosso studio legale candese, abbiano citato in giudizio sia la Wada che Richard McLaren, l’autore del rapporto, chiedendo oltre alla riabilitazione un grosso risarcimento danni. Che gli atleti fossero realmente innocenti o che i laboratori russi abbiano occultato perfettamente le prove, scrive il New York Times, è difficile da stabilire. Resta il fatto che una serie di decisioni importanti, presa in tempi rapidissimi e in alcuni casi ratificate dal Tribunale Arbitrale dello Sport di Losanna, rischia di essere smentita nei tribunali ordinari con un enorme danno di immagine e finanziario sia per la Wada che, in alcuni casi, per il Cio che ratificò e promosse le sospensioni tramite una commissione costituita ad hoc.»

Si preannunciano tempi di richieste danni milionarie, sempre che il Kremlin non ne voglia fare anche un caso diplomatico. Non sarebbe la prima volta che lo stato russo si costituisce parte civile chiedendo ed ottenendo risarcimenti stroboscopici. Ma anche questi mentitori cronici del The New York Times dovrebbero essere portati in tribunale e condannati a risarcire coloro che hanno calunniato, pervicacemente, per anni.

La seconda è la affidabilità del The New York Times.

Cnn. Crollo dell’audience dopo la pubblicazione di troppe fake news.

Trump. CNN, NYT ed AP ammettono di aver riportato artatamente notizie false su Mr Trump.

The New York Times. La Voce del Nuovo Padrone.

Former ‘Apprentice’ contestant accuses Trump of making unwanted sexual contact.

Negli ultimi anni il The New York Times è diventato un’oliata macchina del fango, da vero ‘magister iniquitatum‘.

Ed è anche recidivo, per dirla con Agostino ‘Appone iniquitatem super iniquitatem‘.

Resta sempre più difficile trovare una notizia riportata correttamente, che vada bene, che non sia totalmente inventata, secondo la norma.

Tutta la ‘mountainous evidence of Russia’s doping scheme‘ era una gigantesca balla. Si consentito dirlo: sono liberal democratici.

Facciamo infine sommessamente notare come il delirio di persecuzione sia una patologia psichiatria degna di essere trattata.

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→ The New York Times. 2017-09-12. World Anti-Doping Agency Clears 95 Russian Athletes

Global antidoping authorities have begun assessing the cases of individual athletes implicated in Russia’s yearslong doping program that was exposed last year, and their early decisions are expected to fuel the debate over Russian athletes’ eligibility.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, the regulator of drugs in sports that produced mountainous evidence of Russia’s doping scheme, has agreed to clear 95 of the first 96 athletes whose cases have been reviewed, according to an internal report circulated among the organization’s executives in recent days.

The closed cases are very likely to set off a debate in the sports world over whether Russia’s schemes were so successful in destroying evidence that defensible cases cannot be built against some athletes, or whether officials have taken a soft approach to punishments.

“The available evidence was insufficient to support the assertion of an antidoping rule violation against these 95 athletes,” Olivier Niggli, the agency’s director general, wrote in the internal report, which was obtained by The New York Times. The report does not identify any of the 96 athletes.

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Niggli said: “The system was very well organized,” referring to Russia’s coordinated cheating that extended from world championship competitions to the Olympic Games. “On top if it, years after the fact, the remaining evidence is often very limited.”

Richard McLaren, the investigator who spent much of the last two years deconstructing Russia’s schemes and identifying about 1,000 implicated athletes, indicated that many cases would be hard to prosecute given Russia’s lack of cooperation in providing lab data, and its practice of destroying tainted urine samples that would be plainly incriminating.

Still, sports officials charged with building cases against the 95 athletes in question appear to have never followed up on certain leads. Most notably, none requested interviews with the whistle-blower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov — Russia’s former antidoping lab chief now living in the United States, whose tell-all account prompted Mr. McLaren’s inquiry report — raising questions about their willingness to discipline a major sports power.

In a letter obtained by The Times, Dr. Rodchenkov’s lawyer wrote to the antidoping regulator on Sunday taking issue with the fact that sports officials had not solicited his client’s testimony and had claimed that Dr. Rodchenkov was unavailable. For more than a year, he has been living in hiding in the United States under protection from the Justice Department, which has investigated Russia’s systematic doping in American sports competitions.

“Dr. Rodchenkov’s alleged unavailability has been cited as one of the reasons for the closure of the investigations of individual athletes,” Jim Walden, the lawyer, wrote. “Dr. Rodchenkov has been willing to cooperate,” he continued, noting that only an Olympic investigator, and no sport-specific officials, had requested an interview.

Once Mr. McLaren’s reports described Russia’s doping program, the sanctioning of individual athletes fell into the global sports bureaucracy. The governing bodies for each sport were left to scrutinize their own athletes and mete out punishment when warranted. The World Anti-Doping Agency would then review the decisions made by various sports federations and determine whether they should be approved or challenged. That process has yielded the 95 cases that the antidoping agency has agreed to close.

Some antidoping officials have expressed concern about conflicts of interest among the leaders of individual sports, because they might be inclined to exonerate their own athletes. The head of the global antidoping agency, Craig Reedie, is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, prompting questions about his dual roles of promoting the Olympic brand while also pursuing offenses that could tarnish it.

Each sport’s governing body and the International Olympic Committee have ultimate authority over sanctioning athletes, but the antidoping regulator’s declarations are influential, and the agency has the power to appeal cases.

Mr. Niggli stressed that investigations into other athletes implicated in the doping system were continuing, and that officials needed to pursue the strongest cases first so that they would stand up against the inevitable legal challenges in world sport’s arbitration court. “Leading with a weak case or a poorly prepared case could negatively affect the outcome of all other cases,” the internal report said.

“We have to accept the fact that McLaren’s purpose was to prove a system, not individual violations,” Mr. Niggli said in the telephone interview. “There might have been more evidence out there in Russia for sure, but there was a limit to what he was able to get.”

The regulator’s exoneration of 95 athletes will most likely be seen as partial vindication by Russia, whose officials have been alternately defiant and conciliatory while consistently disputing that the state played any role in the cheating. Reaction will also most likely be closely watched by the International Olympic Committee, which is continuing its investigations into Russia’s cheating and considering blanket punishments for the nation ahead of the 2018 Games.

While the I.O.C. has opened disciplinary proceedings against dozens of Russian Olympians, no medals from the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia — where the nation cheated most flagrantly, with Dr. Rodchenkov swapping out steroid-laced urine overnight — have been rescinded.

Nine months ago, the antidoping regulator, which had lobbied to bar Russia from the 2016 Olympics, published 1,166 pieces of evidence of Russia’s schemes, unearthed by Mr. McLaren and drawing on the testimony and computer hard drive of Dr. Rodchenkov.

Although that evidence — including emails, documents and forensic and scientific analysis — effectively proved a doping system, Mr. Niggli said, it did not necessarily translate to prosecuting the athletes Mr. McLaren had identified as having benefited from the program.

Of the 96 cases closed so far, the athlete who has been disciplined, according to the internal report, was prosecuted successfully because officials had recovered an incriminating urine sample from Dr. Rodchenkov’s former laboratory in Moscow. Thousands of other such samples were destroyed, Dr. Rodchenkov said, and the Russian government has made it a crime for investigators to enter a certain storage area in the lab containing other samples.

“The different types of evidence provided with respect to any individual athlete are like strands in a cable,” Mr. McLaren wrote in his report last December. It would be up to the sports authorities, he said, “to determine whether the provided strands of evidence, standing alone or together, build a sufficiently strong cable.”

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→ Corriere. 2017-09-12. Il Nyt: Russia e doping di Stato, la Wada assolve 95 su 96 atleti russi

Il quotidiano cita un rapporto interno dell’Agenzia mondiale antidoping: «Prove insufficienti» nel rapporto McLaren che ne coinvolse oltre mille.

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La bandiera russa non sventola in un’Olimpiade da Sochi 2014 (Afp)

Il caso (bollente) doveva essere discusso a porte chiuse il prossimo 24 settembre in Canada. Ma qualcuno ha passato ai cronisti del New York Times la bozza operativa della riunione che farà passare un bruttissimo settimana ai vertici dell’Agenzia Mondiale Antidoping (Wada). Nel documento, redatto da Oliver Niggli, direttore generale Wada, e indirizzato ai consiglieri, si spiega chiaro e tondo che su 95 dei 96 atleti russi accusati di essere dopati dall’ormai celebre Rapporto McLaren la Wada non ha elementi sufficienti per poter accertare la positività perché analisi accurate dei referti dei test o nuovi esami su campioni di sangue urine non danno risultati inequivocabili. Insomma, il Rapporto che aveva di fatto bandito dai Giochi Olimpici e dalle rassegne internazionali intere discipline come l’atletica leggera ex sovietica, svergognandole pubblicamente, si basa su fondamenta fragilissime.

Rischio cause

Per arrivare a questo risultato Wada (traducendo, analizzando, verificando dati e campioni) ha impiegato quasi un anno. E non è un caso che proprio la settimana scorsa tre ciclisti russi esclusi dai Giochi, supportati da un grosso studio legale canadese, abbiano citato in giudizio sia la Wada che Richard McLaren, l’autore del rapporto, chiedendo oltre alla riabilitazione un grosso risarcimento danni. Che gli atleti fossero realmente innocenti o che i laboratori russi abbiano occultato perfettamente le prove, scrive il New York Times, è difficile da stabilire. Resta il fatto che una serie di decisioni importanti, presa in tempi rapidissimi e in alcuni casi ratificate dal Tribunale Arbitrale dello Sport di Losanna, rischia di essere smentita nei tribunali ordinari con un enorme danno di immagine e finanziario sia per la Wada che, in alcuni casi, per il Cio che ratificò e promosse le sospensioni tramite una commissione costituita ad hoc.