Life on the Run


Life on the Run

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age of 86. Now on BBC News, the story of Yulia

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Stepanova, the Russian athlete who exposed the state-sponsored doping

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scandal in Life On The Run. Yulia Stepanova, Russian champion,

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world-class athlete turned whistle-blower. Her contribution to

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sport and the fight against doping is beyond comparison. Nobody has

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done more for the anti-doping movement. Branded a traitor in her

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motherland. She and her husband exposed cheating in Russia on a

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colossal scale. Now they live in secret, fearing for their lives.

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Unlikely to ever return home. The young family seem completely at

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home in this average American claim. No one gives them a second glance.

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This is Yulia Stepanova and Vitaly Stepanov, Amberley athlete and an

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anti-doping officer. -- and elite athlete. Their shocking revelations

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exposed the dirty secrets of Russian athletics. Three damning reports

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commissioned by the world anti-doping agency. Much of them

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based on the testimony of this couple. It found that many athletes

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have taken illegal drugs between 2011 and 2015. Four years sports

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competitions have been hijacked by the Russians. Coaches and athletes

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have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators

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have been deceived. It is time that stops. This yes, stops. For Russia

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there was humiliation and a ban on hundreds of athletes from the view

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Olympics. But President Vladimir Putin remains defiant. He believes

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his sports men and women happen victims of double standards and

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political interference. I travelled to the US to meet them,

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I can see exactly where. They have spent the last two years staying

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under the radar. -- I can see. Why did they take such extraordinary

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risks that force them to lead a life on the run? Thousands of miles from

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home, they may never return to Russia.

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Yulia Stepanova was brought up on the edge of an industrial estate in

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western Russia. To begin with, she did not have time for running. In

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fact, she did not have much time for the childhood at all.

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This couple worked in a tyre factory and when they were not on the

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production line they were busy tending to their allotment to feed

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the family. But when she was 13, Yulia Stepanova

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defied her father in came here. Athletics became her escape. She

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began to excel at the hundred metres, winning regions all over --

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winning races all over the region. But then she got a chest infection

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and spent three months in hospital. Getting back on form was going to be

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a problem. Her coach, however, had a solution. The Gloucester Road. The

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banned drug helped her cut a remarkable three seconds of her

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personal best -- to trust a run. In the Russian sports system there

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is very little space for personality or individuality. It is like the

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Army. Very soon Russian coaches start to use performance enhancing

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drugs. If you want to survive in sport you need to be inside the

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system. There are very few opportunities to go up in Russian

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sports and not to be inside the system. In many ways, Russian

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athletes are part of the system. Once she was on the national team,

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she was sent to see a sports scientist who knew about doping.

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Then a chance encounter changed everything. At him race meeting, she

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met Vitaly Stepanov, one person in the system who was not prepared to

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turn a blind eye. He was an idealistic young officer at Russia's

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anti-doping agency, but he got the inside track on his very first date

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with Yulia Stepanova. When I met Yulia Stepanova and had

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an honest conversation with her I understood that I was an idiot. We

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were not there to fix it we were there to follow the goal of Russian

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sports, which is to win medals. The Russian anti-doping agency was part

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of that. A dirty athlete and a crusader for a clean sport, it was

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unlikely combination. But two months later they got married. Somehow they

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stuck together despite frequent rows about Yulia Stepanova's doping. He

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believes in clean sport and is totally committed to it. He sees

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corruption and he is told that is how it is and you're not want to

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change it. He realises that he is probably not, but he faces a choice,

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do I confront this and try to expose it or do I just go with the tide. He

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decided to confront it, to swim against the tide. So Vitaly Stepanov

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wrote to the Russian anti-doping agency about the culture. You cannot

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make a mistake in the 800 metres, it is fatal. It is the fastest tactical

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race in the programme. Meanwhile his doping wife went from strength to

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strength. At the World Championships in South Korea, Yulia Stepanova

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competed alongside some of the finest runners in the sport. But her

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performance arose suspicions. I thought she would not be a threat at

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all. I led the hallway in the semifinal and just at the end I got

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taken over by two girls, one of whom was Yulia Stepanova. It is the

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Russian showing better form here... I was very shocked to see her in

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front of me. She may have done enough. We will

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see how the semifinals pan out... After the event she looked very

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guilty. I said to my husband that I thought she was cheating, I think

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she looks very sorry for me. From that moment on she almost could not

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look me in the eyes. Eventually, the authorities called

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top. The international athletics Federation gave her a two-year

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suspension. After irregularities were detected in her blood samples.

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She joined Vitaly Stepanov by writing to the world anti-doping

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agency, but her ten page confession was ignored. She needed more proof.

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She began secretly taping officials and fellow athletes on her mobile

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phone. We cannot play the audio from this footage because of ongoing

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legal appeals. Here the notorious Doctor boasts how his drugs have

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turbo-charged her performance. After the recording was it on German

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TV, there was finally action. The agency said it did not have the

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legal powers to investigate the allegations before this point. Since

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then they have commissioned the report sent to Russian doping. --

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the reports. For those security the couple left their homeland and now

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live in the US, leading a hand to mouth existence. For safety reasons

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we agreed that we would not film in their place, they are worried about

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their security. I can tell you that it is in a local housing block in a

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not very nice part of town, it is very basic.

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Training alone is far from ideal for an athlete athlete 's -- and elite

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athlete. She had hoped to compete under the mutual flag at the Rio

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Olympics, but the IOC refused because of her doping past. World

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sporting agencies have been lukewarm in their responses. Some people

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would prefer that we do not exist and that we did not share what we

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know. There are corrupt people in those organisations and their goals

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are not to promote Olympic values, they are all is to steal money. The

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classic sports structure and system does not want whistle-blowers coming

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for word because it brings bad news about sport, and that is contrary to

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what they want and it ultimately hurts the brand. In Russia, the

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whistle-blower got a cold reception. The Kremlin called her a Judas and

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the press attacked as a money grabbing traitor. Online, some even

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called for her execution. Russian history is full of stories of

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betrayal. There is a famous one about a schoolboy who informed on

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his own barber to Josef Stalin's police. Some are calling Yulia

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Stepanova a modern-day example, selling out her fellow athletes and

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her country. Reactions have been a mess of anger,

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disbelief and denial. The couple said they doping

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programme was approved at the very top. This is backed up by lab tests,

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forensic reports, and interviews with other insiders.

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Despite denials of state involvement, this official

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laboratory covered up and destroyed hundreds of samples. It lost its

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accreditation and has been out of action for more than one year. This

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Moscow lawyer represents several athletes accused of doping. His

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clients dismiss the evidence and call Yulia Stepanova cheating

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hypocrite. She is not a hero because there is nothing brave in it. The

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main motive for her is the a must for any other athlete who is

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involved in doping, it is a financial motive. But a journalist

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who has been investigating doping for decades, and exposed Lance

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Armstrong, police people have misunderstood and undervalued

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hurdles in Russia and in the wider world. Yulia Stepanova that this in

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return for nothing except agree. -- did this. Some people have said that

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she is a dope, but those people are showing a lack of empathy for where

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she has come from and what she has done. If they bothered to look

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closely at her story they would have nothing but unqualified admiration

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for her. Nobody has done more for the anti-doping movement, no one

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comes within 1 million miles. It is an acknowledgement to get your

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teeth. President Putin says his revamped anti-doping programme will

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be in place early in 2017. The parliament has passed a new law they

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could send drug pushing coaches to jail. Many officers have been sacked

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and other reforms promised. And yet the peer who forced the nation to

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confront this deep-rooted corruption are still seen as enemies of the

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state. They betrayed the Russian doping system and I am completely

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fine with that. -- we betrayed. Yulia Stepanova hopes to compete in

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the World Championships in London next summer. I have never been in

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New York and I have never... In a country she does not know, with a

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language she does not speak, her life has been turned upside down.

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But she has few regrets about the turbulence she has brought to world

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athletics. She has exposed an ugly truth that has gone on spoken for

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years. No matter what her detractors say,

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Yulia Stepanova will surely be known as one of the greatest

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whistle-blowers in the history of sport.

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