Western law professor at centre of Russian doping report
November 11, 2015
Western Law professor Richard McLaren has co-authored an explosive report that accuses the Russian government of complicity in widespread doping and cover-ups by its track and field athletes.
McLaren was part of the three-person independent commission, chaired by Richard Pound, LLD’04, and appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), to investigate allegations of widespread, systematic doping and cover-ups in Russia.
“This report is going to be a real game-changer for sport,” McLaren said. “Unlike FIFA, where you have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets, here you potentially have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets – through extortion and bribes – but also caused significant changes to actual results and final standings of international athletics competitions. This is a whole different scale of corruption than the FIFA scandal or the International Olympic Committee (IOC) scandal in respect to Salt Lake City.”
The report calls for a ban on Russia from competing in international track competitions until the doping situation is remedied.
The report, released on Nov. 9 in Geneva, has sparked intense international attention and has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post and Shanghai Daily.
McLaren has extensive experience as a commercial lawyer, labour and commercial arbitrator and a mediator. A long-standing member of International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the world Supreme Court of sports disputes, McLaren also participated with Sen. George J. Mitchell in the Major League Baseball inquiry into the use of steroids, which culminated in the 409-page Mitchell Report in December 2007 and led the investigation for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) into alleged cover-ups by USA Track & Field following the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
