While investigating the furtive world of illegal
doping in sports, Bryan Fogel, an American filmmaker and a high-level amateur cyclist, connects with Russian scientist
Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of the
Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory. Rodchenkov agrees to help Fogel with an experiment to prove that the current way athletes are tested for drugs is insufficient. He is in a process of designing a protocol that will allow Fogel to take banned
performance-enhancing drugs while avoiding positive drug tests. As Fogel continues his training, he and Rodchenkov become friends, and Rodchenkov even visits the United States to collect urine samples from Fogel. Fogel, disappointed after doing worse in the grueling
Haute Route Alps race while doping than he had done the previous year, visits Rodchenkov in Moscow. Back at home, he follows developing allegations of a
Russian state-sponsored Olympic doping program overseen by Rodchenkov, and sees images in the international media of his friend and the lab he had visited. The ensuing investigation leads Rodchenkov to a forced resignation as the Moscow laboratory head. Worried that he may be "
silenced" by the Russian government, Rodchenkov works with Fogel to come to Los Angeles and go into hiding. Using documentation that Rodchenkov brought with him as evidence, the pair speak to the U.S. Department of Justice and the
New York Times, alleging that Russia has conspired to cheat in the Olympics for decades, and Rodchenkov was hired to ramp up the operation after the embarrassing performance of Russia in the
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. On camera, Rodchenkov testifies that, at the
2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he and his team, with the help of the Russian
Federal Security Service, switched the steroid-tainted urine of the
Russian national team with clean samples. His spreadsheets, discs, e-mails, and other incriminating evidence of Russian governmental involvement forced the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the
International Olympic Committee to investigate. After WADA's
independent investigation confirms Rodchenkov's claims, U.S. law enforcement places him in
witness protection. Rodchenkov's lawyer,
Jim Walden, described the threats to Rodchenkov's life and the suspicious deaths of two of Rodchenkov's associates. The film ends with title cards stating that the Russian government continues to deny it had any involvement with the program, and that Rodchenkov remains in protective custody in the United States. ==Reception==