The jawdropping story of the man behind Russia's sporting shame

The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Russia's Secret Doping
By Grigory Rodchenkov
Originally published

If you love sport, you simply must read The Rodchenkov Affair. Whether you will still love it afterwards is vastly more complex, but you will at least know the true nature of what you are dealing with.

If you have never heard of Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, he is the whistleblower behind the exposing of easily the greatest doping scandal in sport. When you consider what we know about East Germany and China, Balco and Lance Armstrong that is quite the statement.

However, six years on from the World Anti-Doping Agency suspending Russia's "ironically named" Anti-Doping Centre, the country is still banned by the International Olympic Committee. That is the scale of his revelations.

Rodchenkov takes great pride in his expertise aiding and abetting Russian cheating – and was very good at it. For five Olympic cycles, Russia's head of anti-doping viewed his mission as to help its athletes not fail tests rather than catch anyone, and he helped them avoid a single positive.

This, then, is Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf's perspective. Yet Rodchenkov is more anti-hero than villain, because that exact same predatory cunning and self interest that made him the man chosen to steer the ship was also behind him exposing the whole charade.

Rodchenkov is not an idealist. He only found it in himself to blow the whistle when confronted by that most nefarious element of life a long way up the foodchain in Russia – namely the imminent threat of an immediate termination of his ability to continue breathing. Two of his colleagues, he believes, were similarly silenced and, given the great embarrassment his revelations have caused his homeland, there was most certainly motive.

That does not however make it any less brave and Rodchenkov took his knowledge of 35-plus years of systematic doping in Russia to the one place that could potentially protect him – America. There he told all, to save his life and for no more noble a reason, but that does not make what he has to say any less compelling.

The Rodchenkov Affair is many things. It is not just a more detailed version of the Oscar-winning documentary Icarus, complete with levels of corruption that would dislocate the jaw of even Boris Johnson and the almost wonderful creativity of a system which was utterly dedicated to doing absolutely everything within its power to cheat.

In parts it is a brief history of doping, from a surprising factor in Russia's boycotting of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 through the inconsistencies of Ben Johnson's earthshattering positive in Seoul 1988 and every Olympic cycle since.

The Olympics have been tarnished by drugs scandals since the 1980sCredit: Clive Rose

It is also an insight into how Russia viewed the rest of the world. Given their size, wealth, power, population and the extreme to which Rodchenkov details they were pushing the boundaries of doping, and still were far from the dominant force, not to mention their exceptional knowledge of exactly what cheating looks like, it is certainly easier to conclude they may be right on that one.

Rodchenkov's knowledge and understanding of doping is incredible. He was a student athlete studying for a PhD in chemistry and his ego meant his two passions were always going to cross. From a doping amateur athlete evolved the alchemist behind the cocktails of steroids consumed by Russia's athletes and the utterly hairbrained scheme at Sochi that involved the FSB passing apparently tamper-proof samples through a hole in the wall and replacing them with clean urine in the dead of night.

If it sounds crazy, it's because it is. Sport often provides 'you couldn't make it up' moments. The Rodchenkov Affair is no different.

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