Seven Russian Swimmers Among 300 Sanctioned from WADA Operation LIMS
Seven aquatics athletes are among the nearly 300 sanctioned as part of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Operation LIMS in Russia, the organization announced on Thursday.
WADA characterizes the operation as “groundbreaking” for its salvaging of test samples and verification of doping from Russia. The total is 302 sanctions from 291 athletes – 11 having received multiple sanctions – by 23 anti-doping organizations. Four cases remain pending, with charges but no final judgement.
“After years of painstaking hard work and patience, WADA Intelligence and Investigations is pleased to have passed the significant landmark of 300 successfully sanctioned cases,” WADA Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) director Gunter Young said in a press release. “It shows just how important investigations can be in the protection of clean sport. The success of this operation is due in large part to the investment that WADA and the broader anti-doping community have made in intelligence and investigations in recent years. We could not have done this on our own – these achievements are only possible when we are united, and we collaborate to deliver real results. I thank all the other Anti-Doping Organizations involved and also the excellent team of forensic experts at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.”
Operations LIMS – the acronym for the Laboratory Information Management System of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory from which samples were taken starting in 2019 – encompasses 292 athletes. The majority are in weightlifting (107) and athletics/track and field (93). (The full list of sports sanctioning athletes is available in WADA’s release.) Seven aquatics athletes are involved among 22 sports and including para-athletes.
Names of athletes were not specifically released, and Thursday’s heralding of the program was not tied to any specific sanction being levied by WADA. Only one Russian athlete – Valeriia Salamtina, suspended for two years beginning in March 2025 – remains on the Aquatics Integrity Unit’s list of suspended persons. Three bans levied in 2022 to retired swimmers Artem Lobuzov, Alexandra Sokolova and Artem Podyakov cited LIMS data. The 2019 ban of Moiseev Olesya appears to also be related to LIMS sample retrieval.
Operation LIMS began in 2019 with the reinstatement of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency after its suspension for non-compliance in 2015 in the wake of revelations made public by whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov. That allowed WADA to recover 24 terabytes of data from the laboratory in Moscow. The data showed signs of manipulation, which led to a second non-compliance finding for four years in 2020. RUSADA remains non-compliant.
“Put simply, ‘Operation LIMS’ is the most successful investigation in anti-doping history,” WADA president Witold Banka said. “An incredible 302 sanctions have now been imposed in the wake of Russia’s institutionalized doping scheme. This is thanks to the hard work and professionalism of WADA staff, especially those in our extraordinary Intelligence and Investigations and Legal Affairs departments, as well as our partners in other organizations. It is a testament to the cooperation and dedication of the various International Federations and other Anti-Doping Organizations that have diligently followed up on the evidentiary packages WADA provided to them.”