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After his first Olympic experience at Sochi in 2014, Park City-based cross-country skier Noah Hoffman said the only way to keep from being cynical as doping allegations swirl around the Games is to make light of the situation.
"Certainly when I'm hanging out with my teammates and my friends we talk about it," Hoffman said. "We joke about it in a way that's a little too close to home. 'Oh you can't beat them because they're on the juice.'"
The McLaren report, released last month, implicated Russia in a state-sponsored and widespread doping scandal involving 1,000 athletes in 30 sports, but Hoffman isn't taking it personally as the 26th finisher in Sochi's 50km cross-country race — even though the event's gold and silver medalists were named as alleged dopers and suspended by the International Ski Federation last month.
For Hoffman, it's more important to advocate for clean competition and hope the system works.
"I can't control what my competitors do. I can hope that the anti-doping system is working effectively and it's catching people who are cheating, but I can't control that aspect of it," Hoffman said. "I can be an advocate for clean sport and I try to do that as much as possible, but that's really all that's in my control."
Premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival this week, director Bryan Fogel said his documentary "Icarus" proves not only is the Olympic anti-doping system fundamentally broken, but there's no such thing as "clean sport" or a "level playing field."
"There are so many different fallacies in the current system and how it has been set up that, ultimately, it's the clean athlete that is lost," Fogel said.
He originally set out to make a film in the human guinea pig mold of "Super Size Me," inspired by the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. The plan was to participate cleanly in the Haute Route cycling race in the French Alps one year and return the next year to do it "fully doped" under the advice of doctors and professionals while trying to evade detection.
As his training continued, he was introduced to Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of the Russian laboratory that handled athlete testing during the 2014 Olympics, who offered to be his "doping guru."
The duo formed a friendship before a bombshell 335 page World Anti-Doping Agency report released in Nov. 2015 placed Rodchenkov at the center of a widespread and intricate doping system in Russia. Fogel's focus — he wound up finishing 14th in his first cycling race and 27th in his second attempt — completely changed after that.
"I went from essentially being an athlete and training for this insane race and doping and all this stuff to proving that the anti-doping system is a fraud," Fogel said. "Not only everything that I set out to film turned out to be true, it was 10 million times bigger than anything I could ever imagine."
Fearing for Rodchenkov's life, he helped facilitate the doctor's escape from Russia and spent the next six months analyzing documents, poring over photos and compiling spreadsheets that Rodchenkov provided — building a portfolio of devastating evidence in the process.Rodchenkov in the film refers to the Russian federation as "top level cheaters," alleging his intervention in the Sochi games ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin resulted in 13 gold medals for Russian athletes.
"I am sitting on information that will destroy the Olympics," Fogel said. "I'm sitting on the single biggest scandal in the history of sports, I'm sitting on information that every single Russian in the history of sports has been doping — every single one of them — I'm sitting on that Putin is behind this."
Fogel eventually took the information to the New York Times in May 2016 and became a liaison between Rodchenkov, who he refers to as "Russia's Snowden," and the International Olympic Committee, WADA, the FBI and the Department of Justice before facilitating the doctor's entrance into the witness protection program.
The director took issue with the IOC "passing the buck" when it declined to ban Russia from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The governing body wound up allowing 271 of 389 athletes from the country's entry list to compete.
"Why are you going to tune in and watch the Olympics if what you believe that you're watching is a fraud? The IOC knew it and they took no action," he said.
However, Hoffman's feelings are more complicated than simply advocating for a ban. If there are clean athletes trying to play by the rules, he believes, they shouldn't be punished if the majority is playing dirty.
"That gets tricky because I really believe in the rule of law and I believe that every case has to be looked at individually. But at the same time, when you're looking at systematic, state-sponsored doping … You have to somehow punish the organization and punish the Russian institute of sport," he said.
The immediate consequences from the McLaren report have been handed out, but Fogel believes the fallout has just begun with the FIFA World Cup set to be staged in Moscow next year and Russia's fate for the 2018 Winter Games still undecided.The documentary also promoted and helped give rise to fairsport.org, an organization dedicated to "eradicate cheating in sport," founded by 1994 speedskating gold medalist Johann Koss.
"We have to do this for our children," Koss said. "If the constant pressure to be able to win will lead to performance enhancing drugs, we will create a society which is not reflective of who we are."
Hoffman, who's been tested 34 times to date for doping by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, is skeptical the doping system can be overhauled in time for Pyeongchang. But for him, the "Olympic movement" hasn't been lost to this scandal — and he's preserving hope in WADA, the IOC and his fellow competitors that progress can be made to keep the anti-doping momentum moving forward.
"We all chose to be here and to be competing in these sports," Hoffman said. "We're not forced to be here. If you don't believe in it, if you don't believe you can be successful in the current environment, then why are you here?"
Twitter: @BrennanJSmith —
Sports films at Sundance
Several films premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival come from the sporting world. For a list of all screenings and ticket information, visit sundance.org.
"Icarus" (U.S. Documentary Competition) • A film to uncover the truth about doping in sports transforms into a geopolitical thriller involving the Olympic Games. Premieres Friday at 11:30 a.m. at the MARC in Park City.
"Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton" (Documentary Premieres) • A portrait of the fears, courage, ambitions and more of the big-wave surfing legend. Premieres Sunday at 5:30 p.m. at The MARC in Park City.
"The Workers Cup" (World Cinema Documentary Competition) • Inside Qatar's 2022 World Cup labor camps, migrant workers stage a soccer tournament of their own. Premieres Thursday at 9:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City.
"Trophy" (U.S. Documentary Competition) • An in-depth look at big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation unravels the complexity of treating animals as commodities. Premieres Friday at 5:15 p.m. at the Prospector Square Theatre in Park City.