Updated February 04, 2018 08:19:05

Photo: Twenty-eight athletes have had their bans overturned; 11 others had bans reduced. (AP: David J Phillip)

The Olympic movement's fight against doping in sport is in crisis, according to the lawyer representing the whistleblower who exposed Russian drug use at the Winter Games.

Despite confirmation of an institutional doping program inside Russia, the team of athletes from the country due to compete at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics could number 200 — second in size to only the USA.

This week the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the appeals of 28 Russian athletes — some of them medal winners from the last games in Sochi 2014 — who now hope to be "invited" to join 169 other Russians who will compete under the neutral Olympic flag as "Olympic Athletes from Russia".

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering appealing against the decision of its own sports court by going to the Swiss Federal Court.

Russian sport has been brought to the brink by a series of damaging doping revelations. Look back at how it all happened.

A vice-president of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) says she is planning to propose an investigation into the entire process that led to the CAS decision. WADA back potential IOC appeal of CAS Russia decision to Swiss Federal Tribunal.

An American lawyer who was part of the CAS hearings told The Ticket unless there is sweeping reform and the World Anti Doping Agency becomes completely independent from the IOC, the fight against doping was "a complete illusion".

Jim Walden is the legal representative for the whistleblower Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia's anti doping laboratory and the man who masterminded the "hole in the wall" swapping of dirty urine samples for clean ones during the Sochi Winter Olympics.

It was Dr Rodchenkov's admission of guilt and the providing of evidence to WADA's McLaren Report that led to Russia being suspended — as a nation — from the games.

The IOC's decision to invite "neutral" athletes from Russia, who could prove they were clean, has backfired after this week's CAS decision leaving many wondering what level of cheating actually excludes an athlete from Olympic competition.

"Unless we are going to eliminate anti-doping rules and just let everyone dope, WADA does not have the tools and resources it needs to stay ahead of the cheaters and it lacks any authority," Mr Walden said.

"It is always going to be at the whims and the vicissitudes of the IOC and there's going to be pressure.

"I think they have done as much as they can but WADA should be completely independent from the IOC and WADA should have the tools it needs to actually have a deterrent effect on cheaters.

"If those things don't happen then anti-doping is a complete illusion."

Photo: Russian skeleton slider Elena Nikitina says she's aiming to compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics. (AP: Kerstin Joensson)

Mr Walden said his client's testimony had been corroborated so thoroughly that, "these athletes are not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, they are guilty to a mathematical certainty".

"There were four other whistleblowers that Professor McLaren interviewed; there was an entire database of secret adverse analytical findings that a separate whistleblower sent to WADA," he said.

"Why that evidence wasn't before the panel I don't know.

"The problem was that it was the head of the IOC who decided to agree to this expedited appeal ... so the process was rushed.

"They didn't have the time to wait for WADA's analysis of secret laboratory data that they recovered only a couple of months before the appeal occurred.

"The IOC did its own lawyers a great disservice."

Sweeping reforms 'imperative'

According to his lawyer, Dr Rodchenkov believes that the standard of proof CAS used in the Russian athletes' appeal process will encourage other countries to pursue institutional doping programs.

When asked whether Dr Rodchenkov had ever had any dealings with athletes or support staff from other nations with the intention of doping he said he did not know.

"I've never asked him that question and I've never been present when anyone else has asked him that question, so I don't want to give you an inaccurate answer, I just don't know," Mr Walden said.

Mr Walden was asked to give his thoughts on how the world anti-doping system functions.

"You mean the way it functions or the way it doesn't function?" he said.

"Sorry to be facetious with you but if this case proves anything it proves that reform is an imperative."

Mr Walden hopes his client can be involved in any reform process.

"He [Dr Rodchenkov] is obviously the most important whistleblower in the history of sport," he said.

"He knows how the most sophisticated doping system got around the rules and he has the technical expertise to help advance anti-doping technologies — which oddly he still did even while he was helping Russia cheat.

"He's apologised to the world for his role, but we all understand in the Russian system saying 'no' to the Kremlin is tantamount to signing a death warrant."

The full interview can be heard Sunday's edition of The Ticket, or via the podcast available on the ABC Listen App.

Topics: doping-in-sports, winter-olympics, sport, russian-federation

First posted February 04, 2018 06:33:34