You ain’t in Kansas anymore Dorothy. Back in the day, international sports integrity conferences – like Play the Game, happening right now in Colorado Springs – were jovial affairs where independent journalists, saddened whistle-blowers and beleaguered sports officials could meet, chat, drink and sometimes dance. Now, everything has changed. Sports are battle grounds of geopolitical … Continue reading How to Survive an International Sports Integrity Conference
Tag Archives: Russia
The Sporting Scandals of the Season
It is in the dog days of summer that the dirty deeds get done. A good habit for European and North American investigative journalists is to check government press releases at the beginning of the July 1st/4th weekend and the Friday before the Christmas Holidays. For it is then, when most people are rushing out … Continue reading The Sporting Scandals of the Season
The Russian Olympic Doping File
It is a slow-moving disaster than penalizes clean athletes and rewards a dirty system. Welcome to the Russian state sponsored doping saga, episode number 58. ** Here is some context. For those readers who do not follow the fast, exciting world of winter sports in the Virgin Islands – the beach training is intense and … Continue reading The Russian Olympic Doping File
Communists, Criminals or Both? The October Revolution
The door is thick and well padded, but it was not enough to protect the leaders of the first Russian revolution. It is located in a room in the labyrinth-like Hermitage Palace on the seafront of Saint Petersburg. Today, the Hermitage is the world’s largest museum. In October 1917, it was the headquarters of the … Continue reading Communists, Criminals or Both? The October Revolution
The Cold War Spy Games Inside Sports
As the world fixates on Russian spying and cyber-attacks in U.S. politics, the field of sports has been struck by similar intrusions and Canadian athletes and organizations are among the hardest hit. The Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was warned last summer that Russian hackers were trying to breach its computer system, according to security … Continue reading The Cold War Spy Games Inside Sports
Canada’s Pride
Its nice to be able to write a story where the Canadian sports officials are not burying their heads in the sand or passing the hot potato of accountability as quickly as possible. This is an exclusive interview with Richard McLaren, the Canadian sports lawyer who investigated the state-sponsored Russian doping system. It is the … Continue reading Canada’s Pride
The ‘Secret’ Report for WADA
Below is the confidential paper on building an investigative culture in a corrupt sports world that I wrote for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Think Tank held in Lausanne on September 20th. It was supposed to be secret but some craven twit leaked it to his pals in the media within 24-hours of it being … Continue reading The ‘Secret’ Report for WADA
If You Love Sports, Switch Off the Rio Olympics
Ten Points on the Russian Sports Doping Scandal 1. The only way to get clean, dope-free sport is for fans around the world to switch off the Rio de Janeiro Olympics: I do not write this lightly. Nor do I write about the rampant corrupton of the Brazilian construction industry, the potential spread of the … Continue reading If You Love Sports, Switch Off the Rio Olympics
Russian Doping & Fixing: A Normal Way of Business
In the light of Richard McLaren’s report on doping in Russia. Here is a backgrounder from The Fix on corruption in Russian sports. Kaliningrad is a grim, grey city stuck at the far western end of Russia. It is full of crumbling dockyards, high unemployment, and mobsters. The city is an odd outpost of the … Continue reading Russian Doping & Fixing: A Normal Way of Business
Sports and the Russian Mafia
On the news that the Russian track and field athletes are banned from the Rio Olympics. Good decision. Two points, five lessons and the links between sports and the Russian Mafia. The Russian anti-doping system in sport was largely a sham: a Potemkin village of a program designed to give the appearance of an effective … Continue reading Sports and the Russian Mafia
