Six years before the IAAF banned Russia, track and field's governing body knew of out-of-control doping, and officials considered collaborating with Russians to hide the extent of cheating, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press.
As a sophisticated blood-testing program was launched in 2009, IAAF tests were already indicating the scale of Russian doping, according to six years of e-mails, letters and reports the AP received from a person involved in the IAAF's program.
In tests at the 2009 world championships, where Russia won 13 medals, Russians "recorded some of the highest values ever seen," Pierre Weiss, IAAF general secretary from 2006-11, wrote in Oct. 14, 2009, to Valentin Balakhnichev, the Russian athletics president banned for life from the sport last week.
By 2011, the IAAF's new testing regime was flagging so many suspected Russian dopers that officials explored breaking their own rules and those of the World Anti-Doping Agency by dealing with some cases privately.
Baseball
Hall of Famer Irvin dies
Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, a power-hitting outfielder who starred for the New York Giants in the 1950s in a career abbreviated by major league baseball's exclusion of black players, has died in his Houston home. He was 96.
Irvin was 30 when he joined the Giants in 1949, two years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
He played half a season with the Minneapolis Millers in 1955, hitting .352 with 14 home runs before being picked up by the Cubs, with whom he finished his playing career.
Rockies land outfielder Parra
• Outfielder Gerardo Parra agreed to a three-year, $27.5 million deal with the Colorado Rockies. Parra hit .291 with 14 homers last season for Milwaukee and Baltimore.
