WADA retesting all samples of Russian Paralympic athletes

Those who participated in the Paralympic Games in 2012 and 2014

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is retesting all doping samples of all Russian athletes, who participated in the Paralympic Games in 2012 and 2014, Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Sunday.

WADA's independent commission, chaired by Richard McLaren, released a report on July 18 on the results of its probe into the accusations of doping and manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, reports Tass.

The report claimed that the commission found evidence that Russia's Sports Ministry and the centre for the training of Russian national teams and the Federal Security Service had covered up the doping program in Russian sports.

A total of 35 Russian Paralympians were mentioned in the report of McLaren.

Following the report, WADA recommended the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and all international sports federations to ban Russian athletes from all international sports competitions. The IPC opened a disciplinary case against the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC ) on the basis of the WADA report.

"According to the information I have, now continue 'titanic' retests of all the doping probes taken from our Paralympic athletes," the minister said.

"The impression is WADA, after being criticised by IOC, does not have any other targets but Russia, and the key target is to prove they are right. They are doing colossal work, involving big resources to retest all Paralympic athletes after London-2012 and Sochi-2014."

"They are retesting everyone," the Russian minister said.