![]() ![]() As details of the Russian doping program begin to go public, Rodchenkov is forced to resign his job at the Moscow lab and warns Fogel during one of their many Skype calls that he is under surveillance. Icarus is a dark and troubling movie in many respects. “And I was essentially in the middle of it.” “There was a huge sense of responsibility and burden because I understood what this was and how fragile this story was,” he says. In an interview with Bicycling, Fogel said when he realized the size and scale of what he’d stumbled on, he was taken aback. ![]() Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play ![]() Watch how the UCI uses these intense iPads to scan for motor doping: As the story deepens, Fogel finds himself at the center of one of the most massive doping conspiracies ever unveiled, rivaled only by the East German program detailed in Steven Ungerleider’s book, Faust’s Gold. He’s at the heart of a massive program, sponsored and condoned by the highest levels of the Russian state, helping elite Russian athletes win medals through doping. RELATED: That EPO Study You’re Reading May Not Tell The Full Storyīut the moral questions involved in Fogel’s personal quest quickly fall to the wayside as the story takes a startling turn with Rodchenkov’s moral ambivalence as foreshadowing: Rodchenkov is not merely helping Fogel evade doping tests. In one test, we learn he’s improved from 250 watts at threshold to almost 350-at Fogel’s relatively light weight and domestic pro level of fitness. And we see Fogel himself taking the drugs (along with EPO) and dramatically improving his performance on the bike. We then meet an anti-aging doctor who freely prescribes the healthy, relatively young Fogel with drugs like growth hormone and testosterone. ( Spoiler alert: If you haven't watched Icarus yet, we recommend you catch the movie on Netflix first and come back to read this interview.) Will Rodchenkov help him, asks Fogel? Rodchenkov asks a few questions, nods at the answers, and then readily agrees, matter-of-factly laying out what Fogel should do to accomplish his goal. (If you haven't already seen it, you can catch the trailer here.)įogel wants to make a film documenting his scheme to dope and race the arduous Mavic Haute Route, all while evading any positive tests, as a means to expose the fallibility of the very testing regime of which Rodchenkov is a vital part. Rodchenkov was also the man behind Russia’s supposed “anti-doping” initiative that was a cover for a comprehensive and far-reaching doping program that scandalized Olympics sports leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and 2016 Summer Games in Rio.When we first meet Grigory Rodchenkov in the Netflix documentary Icarus, which debuts to wide release today, it’s via a Skype call-and the respected head of the World Anti Doping Agency-accredited Moscow drug testing laboratory is shirtless and somewhat disheveled as he listens to filmmaker and cyclist Bryan Fogel lay out an audacious plan. But Rodchenkov had far more compelling information to reveal than what benefits those drugs had on athletes. Among the people he interviewed for the film was Russian scientist Dr. Director Bryan Fogel, an amateur cyclist, initially planned on showing what sorts of effects taking PEDs would have on his endurance. One of the intriguing aspects of Icarus‘ production is that it started out as sort of a self-experiment type of documentary, similar to 2004’s Super Size Me. In Las Vegas, an uncertain local media future awaits the Athletics.Ryan Clark, RGIII spar on Twitter with Brady Quinn over C.J.Rich Eisen learns he lost his Twitter blue checkmark live on the air.NHL on TNT crew talk mid-season moving on from Rick Tocchet: ‘We knew this was a possibility.’. ![]()
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