Australian walker Jared Tallent says the World Anti-Doping Agency's damning report into Russian athletics has only made him angrier, but he at least feels vindicated after years of criticism for being outspoken on the issue.
In a long-awaited report, an independent commission set up by WADA has recommended the Russian Athletics Federation be banned from the sport after widespread doping offences and systematic failures.
Champion walker Tallent has been a key public figure throughout the investigations via his campaigning to be retrospectively awarded the gold medal from the 50km race at the 2012 London Games, having finished second to Russian drug cheat Sergey Kirdyapkin.
The 31-year-old stayed up overnight to read the report, which he found "pretty devastating".
"I'm actually very angry, just to know that your international federation, the sporting body that should be protecting clean athletes, was looking after the dope cheats," Tallent told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
"It's pretty hard to swallow and disappointing to read that."
But it also gives Tallent renewed hope of claiming the London gold medal, and a sense of relief there may finally be something to show for all the pain, loss of motivation and criticism he has endured over the past few years.
"Definitely," he said when asked whether he felt vindicated in his campaign to oust drug cheats.
"It's been tough. I've copped abuse on Twitter and Facebook from Russians that think I'm just whingeing.
"It's been really hard, to go training every day knowing that I'm being robbed of an Olympic gold medal.
"And for it to take so long - the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) sat on their hands for over two years knowing that Kirdyapkin should have been disqualified."
Tallent said many other athletes have also been "ripped off", citing Russia's domination of women's walking.
But he wished more of his fellow athletes would speak out about the problem that has dominated athletics for decades, saying he'd heard whispers of others who have been unhappy with his public campaign.
"A lot of people think it's too much negativity, and they don't want to speak about it," Tallent said.
"I know there's a few walkers that have suggested that we should just be quiet.
"Even some other people in Australia, they reckon it affects them, me speaking out, which is disappointing.
"I think it's better if everyone speaks out, there's more chance that changes will happen."
Any ban on the Russians would likely include next year's Olympics, of which Tallent would be the biggest Australian beneficiary.
Tallent claimed silver in the 50km walk at August's world championships in Beijing, to Slovakia's Matej Toth, in what he called a "clean" race free of Russian competitors.
Russia withdrew its dominant team of walkers in the wake of positive tests and the forced retirement of disgraced Russian head walking coach Viktor Chegin.
He hopes December's Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing is ruled in favour of the IAAF, which appealed Russia's anti-doping agency's "selective" disqualification of six athletes including Kirdyapkin.
RUSADA's backdated three-year, two-month suspension on Kirdyapkin does not cover the London Olympics, and expires in time for him to contest the Rio Games.
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