A report that connected over 1,000 Russian athletes to a state-run doping system only scratched the surface of a drugs culture that may have touched all the country’s Olympians, WADA director general Olivier Niggli said.

Olivier Niggli described the numbers in Canadian law professor Richard McLaren’s explosive report as “frightening” but likely do not reveal the full scale of a deep-rooted, institutionalised doping programme operated by Russia.

“Richard McLaren and his team only had access to a fraction of what probably happened in Russia,” Niggli told Reuters.

“It is very limited compared to probably reality and McLaren said so himself. We have to be realistic.  He got a sample of what was going on, the scale of this might have been bigger than that.

“It could have concerned every athlete in Russia. We probably have a very accurate picture but we know he did not get any collaboration from Russia.

“God knows what may be there.”

The second part of McLaren’s WADA-commissioned report provided more details of an elaborate doping scheme operated by Russia at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games that were outlined in his original report in July.

It said there was a systematic cover-up, which was refined at the 2012 Olympics, 2013 world athletics championships and 2014 Winter Games, and that more than 30 sports were involved in concealing positive doping samples.

Despite the staggering number of athletes and sports involved WADA director general Niggli said there are currently no plans to dig deeper in the Russian quagmire with yet another investigation but that WADA would react on new evidence of cheating brought to them.

“The sample is large enough to have a very good idea of the system that was in place,” said Niggli.

“Even if there is more evidence that will not change the big picture which is how this system came into place and how it is operated.

“McLaren clearly says he does not have any other evidence. They looked at all they had. If we get further evidence we will address it.

“If Russian athletes start calling to tell us what is going on we will look into it but at the moment I think we have exhausted the information that was available to us.”

Following McLaren’s initial report WADA recommended to the International Olympic Committee that Russians be banned from competing at the Rio Olympics.

The IOC rejected an outright ban and instead left it to individual sporting federations to decide.

Niggli said there would be no new calls for Russia to be barred from future competitions including the 2018 Winter Games.

But he did emphasise that with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) already ruled non-compliant the country cannot host any international competitions.

However, Sochi is scheduled to stage the bobsleigh and skeleton World Championships next year since the city was awarded the event before being found non-compliant.

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