Russian oligarch and owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets Mikhail Prokhorov is providing financial support for a lawsuit that will be filed Tuesday in New York against the whistle-blowing doctor at the center of the doping scandal that led to Russia being banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics. The New York Times reports the lawsuit will argue that lab director Grigory Rodchenkov defamed three Russian biathletes by linking them to the state-sponsored doping program during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Nets owner backs lawsuit against Russian doping scandal whistleblower
A suit claiming lab director Grigory Rodchenkov defamed three Russian biathletes is being filed in New York state Tuesday.
The three athletes, Olga Zaytseva, Yana Romanova, and Olga Vilukhina, were stripped of the silver medals they earned in the biathlon relay during the 2014 games in Sochi Russia. They are suing Rodchenkov for $10 million each for naming them in connection with Russia’s state-controlled doping scheme that resulted in the International Olympic Committee banning the country from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
Prokhorav’s connection to all of this? He formerly led the Russian Biathlon Union and is helping to finance the three athletes’ suit. In December, the doctor accused Prokhorov of paying an Olympic biathlete to keep quiet, which Prokhorov denied.
Rodchenkov is currently in hiding under federal protection in the United States after fleeing Russia and exposing in 2016 his lab’s role in helping the Russian government cover up systematic doping. An independent report by Richard McLaren, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, determined that up to 1,000 athletes in 30 sports between 2012 and 2015 may have been involved, and the IOC banned more than 100 athletes from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.
Meanwhile, Rodchenkov’s lawyer expects the biathletes’ suit to be dismissed before it gets too far. “This claim has zero chance of surviving a motion to dismiss,” Rodchenkov’s lawyer, James Walden, told the Times. “It is as credible as the rest of Russia’s lies. So I will gladly defend it.”
Prokhorav bought the Nets in 2010 and owns a share of Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
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