Canadian swimmer Ryan Cochrane fed up with doping storyline

Three-time Olympian Ryan Cochrane is no stranger to doping controversy.

The Canadian swimmer won the silver medal in the 1500-metre freestyle event at the 2012 London Olympics, behind only China's Sun Yang. Two years later, Yang was suspended for three months for using a banned stimulant.

"It's this continuous story where, as athletes, we wish everyone was clean and you wish you could believe that, but the realistic version to that is there's always going to be doping in sport," Cochrane said.

With the release of the latest World Anti-Doping Agency report from investigator Richard McLaren, Cochrane is once again disheartened with where competitive sport stands.

"I've seen both sides of it," said Cochrane, in Windsor, Ont. where is watching the world short-course swimming championships. "I've seen a [Canadian] teammate that had a supplement that was promised to be clean, he did everything in his power, and he was banned still. I didn't think that was fair."

The report, released Friday, detailed systematic Russian doping as a wide-ranging "institutional conspiracy" that involved more than 1,000 athletes across more than 30 sports, including evidence corroborating large-scale sample swapping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Cochrane, 28, said at times it can be difficult to be outspoken about doping scandals because he doesn't want to say the wrong thing.

"Many athletes, we know we're clean, and we don't understand why that's not the case for everybody," Cochrane said.

The report also highlighted that Russia corrupted the 2012 London Olympics on an "unprecedented scale," but the full extent will "probably never be fully established."

The findings in the report confirmed and expanded on much of the evidence contained in McLaren's first report issued in July.

"Over 1,000 Russian athletes competing in summer, winter and Paralympic sport can be identified as being involved in or benefiting from manipulations to conceal positive doping tests," McLaren said Friday.

McLaren added that the names of those athletes, including 600 summer sports competitors, have been turned over to international federations for them to take any disciplinary action.

Reality check

While Cochrane said it's promising that the doping dialogue is continuing, he said this serves a reality check for all athletes to expect more from the International Olympic Committee and multi-national governing sport bodies.

"We need to take all of those individual cases to heart and do something about it. They all need to be investigated. It's this continuous conversation we need to have to ensure all championships are clean," Cochrane said.

IOC president Thomas Bach has said stiff sanctions will be taken against any athletes and officials implicated in doping. He said he favours lifetime Olympic bans for anyone involved.

Cochrane said he doesn't believe in a blanket ban on any country, but hopes the latest report is met with serious consequence.

"I hope there are harsh punishments for this," the Victoria, B.C. swimmer said. "I hope that it's followed through. Not only by the IOC but all of the multi-national governing bodies of sport."