DENVER (AP) – The leader of the track’s governing body told a lawyer he’d need to cut a deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin to ensure nine Russian athletes accused of doping wouldn’t compete at 2013 world championships in Moscow, according to a new report on the scandal that reached the top of the sport and country.
Details of the 89-page investigation, to be released by the World Anti-Doping Agency on Thursday, were provided to The Associated Press early by a person who had reviewed it. The person did not want to be identified because the report had not been publicly released.
The report, written by WADA’s first president, Dick Pound, says the IAAF must restructure to ensure corruption cannot go unchecked. The corruption “cannot be blamed on a small number of miscreants,” Pound wrote.
“The corruption was embedded in the organization,” the report says. “It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own.”
The report comes a day after the AP released details from six years of IAAF internal emails, reports and notes showing a high level of communication between the athletics federation and Russian officials about suspicious test results from the nation’s athletes, including plans to cover up some doping evidence.