Richard McLaren, Canadian lawyer, finished working on the document and stated he was ready to release it on July 18. He wrote the report on the request of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Radio Liberty).
That was after former director of Russian Anti-Doping Lab Grigoriy Rodchenkov said high-ranked Russian officials widely supported the use of doping. Rodchenkov, fired from his office in November 2015, currently resides in the U.S. In May 2016, he wrote an article in the New York Times, stating that Russian FSB (federal security service) had a hand in concealing true results of doping tests among Russian athletes during the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.
Anti-doping activists and the International Olympic Committee have repeatedly said that McLaren’s report will play the key part in making the decision about allowing or banning Russian Olympic athletes from the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Previously, the IAAF (International association of athletics federations) banned all Russian athletes from its competitions, - except for Darya Klishyna, who lives and practices in the USA.
The Summer Olympics in Rio will take place in August 2016.