Chicago Marathon: Liliya Shobukhova, another doping winner

The agent for three-time Bank of America Chicago Marathon winner Liliya Shobukhova said she paid the Russian track federation more than $600,000 to avoid a doping suspension, the French sports newspaper L’Equipe reported Wednesday.

Russia's Liliya Shobukhova crosses the finish line as women's winner of the 2011 Chicago Marathon.

According to the newspaper, Shobukhova had violated doping rules in 2011 but was allowed to compete in the 2012 Olympics, where she did not finish the marathon, after paying the money in three installments in January, June and July, 2012.

The Russian federation eventually gave Shobukhova a two-year ban in April 2014 for irregularities in her biological passport that indicated blood doping.  The federation annulled all her results after Oct. 9, 2009, which included all three Chicago wins and her 2010 London Marathon victory.

While the case is in the appeals process, Shobukhova still is listed as Chicago champion in 2009-10-11.  If she loses all appeals, Shobukhova  will face demands to repay millions of dollars in prize and bonus money and appearance fees earned during the period affected by the doping violation.

According to L’Equipe, when Shobukhova wanted to return to competition in 2014, the Russian federation demanded she accept the suspension but she refused, asked for reimbursement of the apparent bribes and has so far received only two-thirds of what she had paid.

The German TV network ARD made the same allegations about the Russian federation and Shobukhova in a 60-minute documentary on doping in Russian sport that aired Wednesday night.

The documentary presents evidence that there is state-supported doping, corruption and coverups in Russia.