Brian Fogel wondered and was semi successful at cycling in his younger days and was disappointed with his results. He trains hard and races for a year and then decides to dope for a year to see if he can improve. He realizes that most cyclists, indeed most professional athletes in any physical sport are taking drugs increase performance. The Olympics are no exception and gets in touch with a pro doping chemist. The story could end there but takes a wild turn and becomes a sort of international thriller, unintended and believable. I'm not so sure about the 1 star reviews saying this is propaganda, I think he got lucky and was able to contact the chemist due to his own willingness to help.

ICARUS is a decent feature-length documentary exploring the Russian coping scandal as it happens. It has an unpredictable, timely feature to it with the documentary makers just happening to be in exactly the right place at the right time, in much the same way as the SNOWDON documentary I saw. Bryan Fogel decides to become a dope-using performance cyclist to see how easy it is to beat the system and employs the services of a Russian advisor to help him out. Halfway through there's a massive twist and things suddenly take on a very important international backdrop. The protagonists are likeable and the events that transpire are pretty shocking, whether you're interested in cycling or not. ICARUS is a film successful enough to have been awarded the Best Documentary statue at the 2018 Oscars.

It's a documentary about doping in sports. While opining on the many incidents of drugs in sports, it quickly zeroes in on the Russian efforts. Grigory Rodchenkov led the Russian national anti-doping program and would become a big time whistleblower. His allegations lead to physical evidences of cheating in Sochi after the Russians suffered an embarrassing performance in Vancouver.

Cheating in sports is a big target. Grigory's whistleblowing is very compelling. I do remember some of the news reports during that time. It's even less sophisticated that I imagined. The bottles are left with marks and there are telltale chemicals in the samples. So the allegations are undeniable and therefore they will keep denying. They are not geniuses and more like arrogant brutes. They keep lying and force their lies upon the world until they shout down everyone else. It's the new world order and nice guys finish last.