Even at a time when new scandals erupt with dismaying regularity in big-money sports, the revelations about Russia’s elaborate doping scheme at the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014 are breathtaking. In a plot straight out of a spy thriller, Russian antidoping experts and government agents worked through the night passing urine samples through a hole in the wall, replacing drug-tainted samples with clean ones taken months before from the same athletes and somehow replacing tamper-proof caps.

The whistle-blower was no less than the Russian who ran the lab, Grigory Rodchenkov, who is now self-exiled to Los Angeles — for good reason, it would seem, as two of his close colleagues died unexpectedly in February.

Obviously, Dr. Rodchenkov’s story, as told to Rebecca R. Ruiz and Michael Schwirtz of The Times, needs to be carefully checked by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and the various sports federations involved. But Dr. Rodchenkov played a central and longstanding role in Russia’s doping program, and his story is broadly consistent with what the antidoping agency had previously reported.

The sordid details he provided only further confirm a history of pervasive cheating among Russian teams, involving athletes, coaches, doctors and government officials. It is hard to imagine how Russian athletes can be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro or other international tournaments until there is tangible and convincing proof that Russia has cleaned up its act.