Icarus Summary
The documentary Icarus by Bryan Fogel begins by highlighting the greatness of Lance Armstrong, but like a house of cards his legacy was soon destroyed by allegations of him blood doping. Armstrong initially denied all allegations and reassured everyone that he had accomplished his feats himself, but once his teammates began getting busted it eventually caught up with him. Bryan Fogel idolized Armstrong as they were almost the same age and his friends had raced against him.
Fogel begins his journey to try and replicate Armstrong’s feat by following his detailed blood doping program led initially by a man named Don Catlin, but he decided it was best not to get involved and gave Fogel Grigory Rodchenkov’s information. Fogel wants to ride in the Haute Route, a 7 day amatuer tour race, he had ridden in that competetition in the year prior and finished 14th clean. Fogel described that there was a huge gap in talent from 1st place from where he was now. He wanted to push the limits of his body by doping so that he could get over that hump and into the upper echelon of cycling. Rodchenkov would soon help Fogel by guiding him through the doping program giving him a detailed routine to follow. It was then found that Rodchenkov had his own system that helped athletes get past the WADA’s anti-doping tests.
Fogel begins his Haute Route to a great start as he hovers closely to the top 10, but on day 4 his shifting equipment broke during the race which dropped him 10 places. Despite feeling stronger and better than ever he was unable to recover from that day 4 disaster and finished in a worse position than last year.
The race may be over, but the conspiracy is only beginning as it is learned that Russia has a huge doping problem and Rodchenkov is one of many powerful figureheads. Rodchenkov was being asked to step down from his position as director of the Russian lab. Rodchenkov complies with their demand, as he talked to Sports Minister Mutko. That same day ROdchenkov calls Fogel and is in distress as Russia is cleaning up shop, and suspects that he soon might be in danger. Soon it is announced that Russia will be suspended from the olympics including Rio 2016. This causes Putin to take action to try and clean Russia’s name. Rodchenkov becomes worried and decides he needs to leave Russia for his safety may be at risk.
Rodchenkov decides to become a whistleblower against Russia in order to buy back his safety. He is pushed to bringing Russia down when he learns that his dear friend Nikita had died of a heart attacked, but Rodchenkov knew his friend was healthy so he was obviously murdered for his involvement in the cover up. He goes to a lawyer who can try to help him, but also goes to the New York Times to get his story out there as a sort of insurance policy incase anything happens to him.
Rodchenkov gives an account for his involvement in Sochi. He details how Russia had this intricate plan swap urine samples without detection as a new urine bottle had been implemented to avoid tampering. KGB authorities had a secret hole that they would sneak fresh urine in and out of the facility.
There was major consequences to the success in Sochi as Russia dominated with 13 gold medals. Russia was in a great mood which skyrocketed Putin’s approval rating. This overwhelming support allowed Russia to invade Ukraine. This lingering affect haunts Rodchenkov because he believes that had Russia not have been as successful Putin wouldn’t feel the need to make such an aggressive move.
Once Rodchenkov’s story breaks in the NY Times it makes a huge splash in the world. Rodchenkov becomes a target and not just by KGB assassins that are secretly lurking in the shadows in the United States, but also has his character attacked by the very top of Russian officials. In Russia they bring up the fact that he was detained in a mental institution and said to be a schizophrenic. Putin doesn't even acknowledge him he says he’s never heard of him or even met him, but Rodchenkov mentioned earlier that Putin is the one who got him out of the insane asylum to work as the director of the anti doping lab in Russia.
Once the story broke it was a matter of proving Rodchenkov’s claims to be true. It was then found that the bottles of the athletes who were under suspicion had scratch marks which indicated tampering of the samples. Two weeks before the Rio Olympics WADA wanted to ban all of Russia’s athletes from competing. Nine days before the Rio games Rodchenkov has to go into witness protection as he says goodbye to his wife via skype. In the end, the president of the Olympics decided to let Russia compete in the games despite all the evidence presented that they cheated. Rodchenkov’s life is still endanger to this day.
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