British athlete Paula Radcliffe has said that she is angered and devastated by recent doping claims directed at Russia.
Paula Radcliffe
A report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accuses the Russian government of complicity in widespread doping and cover-up attempts, and claims that the London Olympics were "more or less sabotaged" by Russian athletes who should have been banned for cheating.
"I'm devastated to hear this," the 41-year-old said. "It also makes me very angry that the Russians thought that they could do this to a sport that I love - and that they thought they could get away with it.
"It really does hit hard all of those athletes that have competed for years here and I think that now we have to have faith that our sport can come through this and can move forward."
Radcliffe was herself embroiled in a doping scandal when she was indirectly identified as a suspected doper by MP Jesse Norman during a parliamentary inquiry into blood doping earlier this year. She "categorically denied" any form of cheating and calls herself an "advocate for lifetime bans for doping".
On Twitter, Radcliffe said that she had "suspected some of this for years", but that it was "way worse than imagined". She also supported calls for Russia to be banned from competing if the accusations prove true.
"Federations should be banned if it's shown that there's been systemic and endemic doping going on and that not enough has been done against doping in that country," she said.
"The fact that it's been going on for so long shows that they're not at all willing to clean up and that's why their hand does need to be forced.
"We do need to take the step of banning them form international competition until they do clean up."
The women's marathon world record holder also called for athletes to take a stand against cheating, saying that athletes should push for "bigger sanctions against cheaters".
"Do we need to say, as well as the tests, that we'll allow our homes to be searched? I'd personally sit there and take a lie detector test," she told Sky News.
"It's about bigger steps, bigger sanctions."