Colorado Springs — FOR those who love clean sport, discovering the extent of Russia’s state-supported doping program has been a nightmare realized. Russian whistle-blowers have come forward with evidence of shadow laboratories, tampering by state intelligence officers and swapped samples at the Olympics. This is a violation of the very essence of sport and — only months from the Summer Games in Rio — an assault on the fundamental values of the Olympic movement.

The scandal first unfolded with a 2014 German TV investigation into organized doping in Russian athletics, based in part on testimony from two brave Russians, Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian antidoping official, and his wife, Yulia, a middle-distance runner. In the wake of that exposé, the World Anti-Doping Agency — the organization that oversees the global fight against performance-enhancing drug use in sport — reluctantly started its own inquiry. Known as the Independent Commission, it was given the job of determining whether Russia’s track and field federation was operating under a state-backed doping program.

WADA knew of the Stepanovs’ accusations for years; Mr. Stepanov was offering evidence of extensive doping in Russia since 2010. Yet the agency was moved to act only after the German documentary.

In November, the commission confirmed the Stepanovs’ claims in a report that described a “deeply rooted culture of cheating.” The commission’s chairman, the Canadian lawyer Richard W. Pound, believed the scheme extended to the highest levels of Russia’s Sports Ministry.