The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appointed a Canadian lawyer who helped expose widespread cheating in Russian athletics to oversee the investigation into allegations of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
WADA President Craig Reedie on May 19 announced that Richard McLaren would investigate the doping allegations published by The New York Times and the U.S. network CBS in relation to the Sochi games.
McLaren served on a three-member WADA commission last year that exposed extensive doping in Russian track and field.
His appointment followed concerns about a conflict of interest in the Sochi investigation because WADA is funded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In an interview published by The New York Times last week, Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia's anti-doping laboratory, detailed how Russian athletes cheated on drug tests in Sochi.
Rodchenkov said he tampered with urine samples at the doping lab used at the games, with assistance from people he believed to be members of Russian security services.
The IOC said earlier this week that it would begin retesting samples from the Sochi Olympics following Rodchenkov's claims.
