Grigory Rodchenkov

Russia's doping program and Rodchenkov's work was highlighted in testimony before the U.S. Helsinki Commission (also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Washington, DC on February 22, 2018. During that hearing, Walden discussed Rodchenkov's work in detail and suggested that the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee needed to do more to restore integrity to international sport.

Despite the information presented in the McLaren report, Russia was reinstated by the IOC for international competition in September 2018. In an editorial published in the American newspaper USA Today, Rodchenkov expressed his dismay at the decision calling it "catastrophic." . His lawyer, Jim Walden, issued a statement on behalf of Rodchenkov saying that the decision to reinstate Russia is "the greatest treachery against clean athletes in Olympic history." Rodchenkov continues to fear for his life and remains in hiding under protective custody.

Following Russia's banning from the 2018 Winter Olympics and the stripping of medals from multiple Russian athletes, Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, controlling owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, agreed to finance a defamation lawsuit in New York against Rodchenkov. The suit claims that Rodchenkov defamed three Russian biathletes — Olga Zaytseva, Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina — when Rodchenkov included them on a list of athletes who took performance-enhancing drugs as part of a state-controlled program that corrupted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The women, who were stripped of the silver medal they won as part of a relay team, are seeking $10 million each in damages.

In April 2018, Rodchenkov, through his lawyer, Jim Walden, countersued Prokhorov under New York's anti-SLAPP law claiming that Prokhorov's suit was frivolous and intended to limit individuals from exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech. According to published reports, the countersuit is likely to seek the names of other individuals who are financing the lawsuit against Rodchenkov as well as information about the assets of Prokhorov.

Rodchenkov was featured in the 2017 Netflix documentary Icarus, directed by Bryan Fogel. In Icarus, Rodchenkov describes his involvement in a conspiracy to help Russian athletes to beat doping tests in the Olympic Games. On March 4, 2018, Icarus won Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Rodchenkov and his connections to Russian doping were the subject of the 2017 Netflix documentary Icarus, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Oscars ceremony.

In November 2017, an IOC panel concluded: "Whatever his motivation may be and whichever wrongdoing he may have committed in the past, Dr. Rodchenkov was telling the truth when he provided explanations of the cover-up scheme that he managed."

On December 5, 2017, it was announced that Russia would be banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Following the announcement, Jim Walden, an attorney for Rodchenkov, issued a statement applauding the decision by the IOC that sends "a powerful message that it will not tolerate state-sponsored cheating by any nation."

Rodchenkov discussed doping at the Sochi Olympics with whistle-blower Vitaly Stepanov, who recorded 15 hours of their conversations without his knowledge. Rodchenkov also gave details to The New York Times, alleging that the Federal Security Service (FSB) was involved in covering up positive doping samples. In July 2016, the McLaren Report, an independent investigation commissioned by WADA found corroborating evidence after conducting witness interviews, reviewing thousands of documents, cyber analysis of hard drives, forensic analysis of urine sample collection bottles, and laboratory analysis of individual athlete samples, with "more evidence becoming available by the day." The Moscow laboratory "operated under State oversight and control" and "personnel were required to be part of the State directed system that enabled Russian athletes to compete while engaging in the use of doping substances".

On 9 December 2016, McLaren published the second part of his independent report. The investigation found that from 2011 to 2015, more than 1,000 Russian competitors in various sports (including summer, winter, and Paralympic sports) benefited from the cover-up. Emails indicate that they included five blind powerlifters, who may have been given drugs without their knowledge, and a fifteen-year-old.

In 2015, numerous accusations against Rodchenkov came from the WADA Independent Commission (IC). The IC established that Rodchenkov "not only accepted, but also requested money" from atheletes in order to conceal their positive test results. "Rodchenkov had personally instructed and authorized the disposal of 1,417 samples" prior to the arrival in Moscow of a WADA audit team, which "directly defied and violated the WADA directives". Besides, "Rodchenkov instructed that all records showing the existence of the samples, as well as any documentation of the resulting analysis, be destroyed". Rodchenkov later admitted that he destroyed the samples on purpose in order to limit the extent of WADA's audit. The IC report concluded that Rodchenkov was "at the heart of the positive drug test coverup".

Following the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Rodchenkov the Order of Friendship. In 2016, after the doping allegations were widely reported, Putin called Rodchenkov a "man with a scandalous reputation."

At the time Rodchenkov was the director of the Russia's national anti-doping laboratory. In June/July 2013, British journalist Nick Harris informed International Olympic Committee (IOC) and WADA about this criminal drug case and suspicions of Rodchenkov’s involvement, but this information was apparently ignored. Rodchenkov claims that he was not jailed by Russian authorities in 2012 because they had earmarked him to dope their athletes at 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

In 2011, Russian authorities opened an investigation against Rodchenkov's sister, champion runner Marina Rodchenkova [ru] , for buying and possessing banned drugs that she admitted she had intended to supply to athletes. Rodchenkov was also arrested in relation to this investigation and questioned on suspicion of sourcing and selling banned drugs. Charges against him were eventually dropped, but his sister was convicted and jailed in December 2012.

Grigory Rodchenkov graduated from Moscow State University and received his Ph.D. in chemistry. From July 2006 until November 2015 he has worked as the director of the Anti-Doping Center, Russia's only laboratory accredited by WADA.

Shortly after release of the IC report, the Moscow Antidoping Center headed by Rodchenkov since 2006 was suspended by WADA. In January 2016, Rodchenkov takes a flight from Moscow to Los Angeles fearing for his safety, and settles in the United States where he is currently in the witness protection program. Two major Russian anti-doping executives, Vyacheslav Sinyev and Rodchenkov's friend Nikita Kamaev, unexpectedly died in the months after the doping scandal started.

Grigory Mikhailovich Rodchenkov (Russian: Григорий Михайлович Родченков ; born 24 October 1958) is the former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory, the Anti-Doping Center. In November 2015, the Independent Commission of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found out that Rodchenkov was “at the heart of the positive drug test coverup”, in particular, he requested money from athletes for concealing positive tests and violated WADA directives by destroying 1,417 urine samples. Rodchenkov made headlines in 2016 after an interview to The New York Times exposing a state-run doping program in Russia. Rodchenkov said he developed a three-drug cocktail of banned substances that he mixed with liquor and provided to dozens of athletes at Sochi Olympics. Rodchenkov’s allegations were confirmed by the independent McLaren Report, leading to Russia's partial ban from the 2016 Summer Olympics and total ban from the 2018 Winter Olympics.