The terribly long period of all sorts of hardships of Russian athletes is closely connected with the name of Richard McLaren. It was the Canadian lawyer who investigated the anti-doping violations, which, according to the former head of the Russian Anti-Doping Center, Grigory Rodchenkov, took place between 2012 and 2014.

As a result, since 2016 we have been constantly suffering from the consequences of the so-called “McLaren report”: the cancellation of the Biathlon World Cup stages, suspension from international sports competitions and, key, the inextricable negative connection between Russia and doping, which was actively built by McLaren and his associates.

Surprisingly, now that the culture of canceling our sport has entered a new orbit, the Canadian has dramatically changed his position. McLaren calls to allow Russian athletes to international starts.

Richard decided to go against the whole world or just wants to hype?

Canadian duo

Richard McLaren is a person whose fateful role in the fate of our athletes is a vivid example of chance, not a natural sequence. Until 2000, the Canadian had absolutely nothing to do with sports. He has taught at the University of Western Ontario and developed his own firm while immersed in mortgage law, commercial arbitration and data security. As you can see, the word “sport” does not appear anywhere.

But in 1998, at the age of 53, he became a member of the CAS Special Unit for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and two years later, Richard was asked to investigate possible steroid use in American sports. From that moment on, he begins to gradually immerse himself in the legal intricacies of a new world for himself, but at the same time he does not forget to do more familiar things – the university and business.

In general, McLaren was in no hurry to completely immerse himself in the problems of doping in sports, but his acquaintance with his namesake and compatriot Richard Pound played the same role, as a result of which many of our athletes ended up on the sidelines of world tournaments.

Pound, being the first president of WADA, invited McLaren to work on an investigation into possible doping in the camp of the Russian national team. So, since 2015, two Canadians have been working hard, the results of which are known to everyone.

Richard Pound / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Vitvitsky

As the investigation progressed, Pound openly called on the IOC to remove Russia from the Rio 2016 Summer Games. But Thomas Bach at that time was more loyal to our Olympians, so only representatives of the Paralympic team suffered, which in essence looked like an even more stupid decision of the international community.

McLaren, of course, could not avoid the Russophobic influence that literally hovered around the team that conducted the investigation. As a result – his two independent reports, based on the testimony of Grigory Rodchenkov and not supported by factual explanations of how our country replaced the samples of athletes. However, this was enough to convince the world of the dishonesty of Russian athletes.

Hype or real opinion?

In 2015, McLaren was 70 years old – a pretty impressive age for the serious pressure that Richard certainly faced. His older comrade Pound is three years older. A tandem of age, but not a timid one, and coped with the load.

However, after those events, the Canadian lawyer left the stage, so it seemed that his time was gone. Perhaps McLaren himself felt the same, because in the midst of Russophobic sentiments throughout world sports, he decided to prove himself by unexpectedly taking the side of our athletes:

“The way they are treated is unfair. Athletes are not related to events in politics. I think these are strong arguments for returning them to the competition. If the Court of Arbitration for Sport decides in favor of the athletes, the associations will be forced to allow them to compete on the world stage, Sportschau quotes Richard McLaren as saying about Russian and Belarusian athletes.

Richard McLaren / Photo: © Reuters

Positive words in the context of Russia from the lips of McLaren naturally resonate:

– I did not expect such statements from McLaren. The thesis “Sport is out of politics” still did not lose its relevance, although, of course, it has been violated lately. Now we can agree with McLaren’s statement. Obviously, Russian athletes should be allowed to participate in international competitions. Now we are waiting for Bach to say such words. I hope that the IOC will change its position,” Alexander Zhukov told Match TV.

The emotions of the honorary head of the ROC were also supported by Irina Rodnina, who wonders if Richard really decided to rehabilitate himself?

But it seems that in this story, the 77-year-old lawyer may have a more prosaic reason to go out to the public: Richard just wanted attention, and there is no better way to get it than to go against the whole world. And in this case, he, apparently, is not at all afraid of condemnation and sanctions from the United States. In the end, McLaren now risks nothing, because he has already played his role in the Russophobic campaigns.