Just three weeks prior to the world championship in Beijing, the World Anti-Doping Agency is apparently "very alarmed" by mass doping allegations which WADA president Craig Reedie claims could "shake the foundation" of athletics, according to Yahoo News.
Per Yahoo, ARD, a German television channel, and Britain's Sunday Times newspaper both claimed to have been leaked "a database belonging to athletics governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)" which contained the details of over 12,000 blood tests from approximately 5,000 competitors.
The results reportedly revealed "extraordinary" levels of doping. Among the findings:
-"At least" a third of medial-winners at world championships and Olympics between 2001 and 2012 had given "suspicious tests."
"In one event the entire podium was comprised of athletes, who in my opinion had most probably doped at some point in their career," Australian doping expert Michael Ashenden told ARD.
-"More than" 80 percent of Russia's medal-winners had suspicious tests. 18 Kenyan medals were won by athletes with suspicious tests.
-" The tests showed an increasing use of blood transfusions and hard to detect EPO micro-doses to boost red cell count and performances."
It's somewhat ironic that a German news outlet would be involved in the leak, as German gold-medal winning biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle was expelled from the Sochi games after testing positive for banned substances. Italian bobsledder William Frullani was also expelled.
"WADA is very disturbed by these new allegations that have been raised by ARD which will, once again, shake the foundation of clean athletes worldwide," Reedie said. He went on to suggest that the numbers in the database shocked him and called the findings, "wild allegations."
"These allegations require swift and close scrutiny to determine whether there have in fact been breaches under the World Anti-Doping Code and, if so, what actions are required to be taken by WADA and/or other bodies," said Reedie.
As noted above, Russian and Kenyan athletes were said to be prominently featured in the leak, per Yahoo, and the Russian allegations especially have piqued the interest of the WADA as allegations of widespread doping in Russian athletes was already being looked into by an independent commission after ARD aired allegations in December.
Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko called the allegations "nonsense."
The IAAF has responded to the leak, stating that it was aware of the reports and stressed only that the data was "obtained without consent" and by promising that they reserved the right to "take any follow up action necessary to protect the rights of the IAAF and its athletes."
