Doping - Top Secret: Showdown for Russia

Great sporting nation Russia is close to getting banned from the Oplympic Games in Rio. Can they guarantee to play fair this time or will they fool the rest of the world once more?

On June, 17th the IAAF (International Amateur Athletics Federation) will reach its eagerly awaited decision in the affair as to whether or not Russia will be at the Olympic Games. And because the Russians apparently have made great efforts in recent weeks and months, to prove to the world that the system has changed for the better, at the same time, however, everything is collapsing around them.

Over the past two years, Hajo Seppelt's sensational documentaries have uncovered a doping and corruption network in Russian sport that has sent shockwaves throughout the world of international sport. Courageous whistle-blowers collected the shocking evidence for the ARD programmes at great personal risk – evidence that severely incriminates Russian athletics in particular and exposes systematic fraud and manipulation on an unprecedented scale. The consequence: Russia's athletes are now being threatened with disqualification from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as a result of the ARD/WDR revelations. This would be the first time in the history of sport that fraud had such dramatic consequences.

Investigators have spent the past few months in Russia trying to get a first-hand picture of how serious the Russians are about reforming sport. But they constantly came up against resistance in the world's largest country. The great sporting nation with its influential sports functionaries is reluctant to show its hand. It is currently fighting with all its might to take part in Rio though and attempting to get influential international sport lobbyists on its side.

The sporting superpower Russia, which is also organising the 2018 football World Cup, is at a crossroads in the run-up to the Olympics in Rio. ARD/WDR doping expert Hajo Seppelt and his team have again spent several months conducting research in Russia. The new film in the series "Doping – Top Secret" reveals whether Russia's promises to finally guarantee clean sport are credible – or if the sporting world will continue to be played for a fool. (texte officiel du distributeur)