Grigory Mikhailovich Rodchenkov (; born 24 October 1958) is the former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory, the Anti-Doping Center. Rodchenkov is known for his involvement in the state-run doping program in Russia.
In November 2015, the Independent Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had determined that Rodchenkov was "at the heart of the positive drug test coverup", and that he had been directly involved with concealing positive tests and destroying 1,417 urine samples. Rodchenkov made headlines in 2016 after an interview to The New York Times exposing the 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 bans from the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2018 Winter Olympics. Since the revelations became public, Rodchenkov has been living in hiding, under witness protection.
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.
Life and career
Rodchenkov was born in Moscow. His mother worked as a doctor at Kremlin Hospital (now Central Clinical Hospital). Throughout school he was involved in athletics and during his studies he was a member of the MSU national team and met the standard of the Master of Sports in Athletics. Rodchenkov graduated from Moscow State University and received his Ph.D. in chemistry with a focus on chemical kinetics and catalysis. In 1985, he started working at the Moscow Anti-Doping Centre. In 1986, he worked at the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow and co-discovered 14 positive samples, including those of sprinter Ben Johnson. However, the announcement was not made because the sports and party leaders of the USSR did not want to cause a scandal.
Rodchenkov later described that the Soviet Union's state-sponsored doping program served as a model for Russia's program in the XXI century, with Vladimir Putin merely continuing what Joseph Stalin started. In 1994, he moved to Interlab. When he returned to Russia, he worked for different petrochemical companies. He joined the Anti-Doping Centre in Calgary for the 1998 Winter Olympics. From July 2006 until November 2015 he worked as the director of the Anti-Doping Center, then Russia's only laboratory accredited by WADA.
Doping investigation in 2011
In 2011, Russian authorities opened an investigation against Rodchenkov's sister, champion runner , 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. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for schizotypal personality disorder following a suicide attempt after charges were filed against him. Charges against him were eventually dropped, but his sister was convicted and jailed in December 2012.
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.
Doping scandal after 2014
In 2015 the WADA Independent Commission (IC) made numerous accusations against Rodchenkov. The IC established that Rodchenkov "not only accepted, but also requested money" from athletes 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".