Georgian sport under scrutiny after cheating to pass anti-doping controls at the Rugby World Cup

The World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) has released a devastating report against the sport of Georgia rugby after suspending six players and one official for alleged tampering with urine samples during the 2023 Rugby World Cup. They point to confirmed anti-doping rule violations and a loss of confidence in the Georgia Anti-Doping Agency (GADA) due to a series of breaches of the World Anti-Doping Code.

“Operation Obsidian, launched in 2023, investigated allegations that some players were carrying out sample substitutions, in flagrant contravention of the rules. Sample substitution is a prohibited method, classified as illegal in article 2.2 of the Code. The investigation, the report of which is published today, reveals five cases of sample substitution and confirms that GADA employees notified players of the Georgian national rugby team in advance about the tests. Likewise, it determined that the anti-doping control officers did not observe the athletes notified for control or witness urination, which constitutes a clear breach of the rules,” they write in their very harsh statement.

In the past Rugby World Cup in France’23, Georgia was the red lantern of Group C after losing to Wales, Fiji and Australia and drawing with Portugal. He has participated six times in the oval ball world championship and has always fallen in the first phase. Georgia is qualified for the next 2027 World Cup in Group B with South Africa, Italy and Romania. They have also won the last eight European Rugby Championships, the second most important competition for European nations after the Six Nations. They are still in the final of the 2026 edition, where they will be the favorite against Portugal this Sunday. Several of its international players play in the French first division, such as La Rochelle defender Davit Niniashvili and Paris Saint-Germain right prop Giorgi Melikidze.

As regards Olympic Games, in Paris’24 Georgian athletes won three golds (weightlifting, judo and wrestling), three silvers (judo and wrestling) and one bronze (boxing) and had just won eight metals in Tokyo’20, two golds (weightlifting and judo), five silvers (Greco-Roman wrestling, judo and wrestling) and one bronze (weightlifting). At the recent Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina they added silver in pairs figure skating (Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, both born in Russia), their first in history at the White Games.

The president of the AMA, Witold Bańkahas also stated that “what has been happening in Georgian rugby is outrageous and will have repercussions on Georgian sport and government, as well as rugby globally. This is not the end of the story, as a deeper investigation is underway into Georgian sport. WADA has brought the findings of Operation Obsidian to the attention of the Government of Georgia to address the issues at the Georgia Anti-Doping Agency. While next steps are considered, it is clear that the “WADA has lost confidence in the GADA anti-doping program and the relevant authorities must make radical changes.”

And monitoring of the Georgian athletes has already begun: “AMA has extracted samples collected from athletes in other sports in Georgia. An expert review of the Athletes’ Biological Passports related to these samples is currently being carried out. If the samples are considered suspicious of substitution, Operation Obsidian will inform the relevant Anti-Doping Organizations and guide them in the process of DNA analysis and comparison.”