Thread by @sportingintel

10 years ago this week, we published an investigation by @MarthaKelner and me, revealing there was a doping and cover-ups plot underway in Russian sport, naming lab boss Grigory Rodchenkov at the heart of it.

🧵

1/n

@marthakelner It was the biggest story I’ve ever broken, and I can’t imagine doing another with such significant ramifications.

(Oh, and it was totally ignored, not least by the IOC, who were given evidence and couldn’t be arsed to act).

2/n

@marthakelner It was a batshit crazy tale: WADA-appointed lab boss had been arrested for drug-dealing, tried to stab himself to death in the heart, sent to a mental institution, all of this secret, then covered up, then sent back to work to corrupt the Sochi Games.

3/n

@marthakelner The story even had a quote from a senior Russian winter sport official, saying Russia’s athletes were doping and they’d cheat their way to Sochi glory (six months in the future) and get away with it.

4/n

@marthakelner The day the story was published we were publicly denounced by Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko, a man who once claimed expenses for 97 breakfasts in 20 days (at a cost of $4,500) at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

5/n

@marthakelner This was the original story, BTW, from 10 years ago this week.

@marthakelner Some 17 months after our story, in Dec 2014, German investigative reporter @hajoseppelt did a fresh iteration of the story, focussing on athletics, and bribes, with covert footage. Finally there began a formal investigation, or rather four, or five.

7/n

@marthakelner @hajoseppelt Anyone interested in journalistic process and how exactly you work through such a big investigation can read this; I wrote it in 2016, the story behind this story.

8/n

sportingintelligence.com/2016/07/25/exp…

@marthakelner @hajoseppelt Over the ensuing years, Rodchenkov fled to the USA and entered witness protection, and we kept digging into the full extent of corrupted events, from London 2012 to world athletic champs in 2013, to Sochi in 2014, and the football World Cup.

9/n

@marthakelner @hajoseppelt If you’re interested in sports corruption and politics and doping then you’ll have seen ‘Icarus’ by filmmaker @bryanfogel; the astonishing story of how he landed in the middle of one of sport’s greatest scandals, by accident. If you haven't seen it, do.

10/n

@marthakelner @hajoseppelt @bryanfogel 10 years on from our original piece, I’ve caught up with Rodchenkov, his lawyer Jim Walden, and @bryanfogel, and with investigator Richard McLaren. They all still agree that the IOC still don’t give a sh*t about doping.

11/n

https://t.co/4ycDJ4wsqDmailonsunday.co.uk/sport/olympics…

@marthakelner @hajoseppelt @bryanfogel And @bryanfogel has made a sequel to Icarus, platform to view TBC. ‘What you see in the follow-up film is there is no happy ending for Grigory, or for whistle-blowers in general.’

12/12

Interview with Rodchenkov: https://t.co/7fruhz2zFjmailonsunday.co.uk/sport/olympics…