Russia Demands End to ‘flawed’ Olympic Doping Retests 

The system of retesting for doping offences at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics is flawed and should be scrapped, says Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko.

A total of 55 stored samples from those Games have tested positive, according to the International Olympic Committee.

Russia says that includes 22 of their athletes – but that two were cleared after B samples tested negative.

“All the samples that laboratory tested must be declared invalid,” Mutko told Russia’s Tass news agency.

“A laboratory which falsely declared a positive test result must be stripped of its accreditation.”

The IOC has been retesting samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland. The tests are focusing on samples from athletes hoping to compete at the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Russian athletes have been suspended from international competition by the IAAF since November with the IOC set to decide whether the nation will be allowed to compete at Rio 2016 at a meeting on 17 June.

A documentary by German broadcaster ARD on Wednesday claimed that Mutko was personally involved in covering up doping cases and had allowed a disgraced walking coach to return to the Russian camp.

A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin denied there had been wrongdoing, adding that “until there is hard evidence to back up those claims… we will treat this as libel”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s state Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against unnamed former officials from the country’s track and field federation, focussing on an “abuse of authority”.

A spokesman claimed it was tied to a criminal investigation in France into alleged extortion of athletes by former IAAF president Lamine Diack and other officials.