Image copyright Getty Images Image caption IOC bosses are accused of trying to whitewash the incident in a report
Human Rights Watch has accused the International Olympic Committee of whitewashing the case of Chinese gymnast Peng Shuai.
The Beijing 2008 gold medallist was stripped of her title after failing a doping test in 2016 and the IOC on Friday said her protest over the results of the test was flawed.
There was an allegation that Russian medallists swapped urine samples with clean samples, as part of the state-sponsored doping scandal.
But the IOC is accused of blaming the Chinese athlete.
“An Olympic champion’s claims of doping, a potential conspiracy, and severe punishment should never contradict what their peers, reporters, athletes’ families, or their sport’s governing body have said about the same allegations,” said Shawn Trevino, HRW’s anti-doping researcher.
She added: “It’s rare that an athlete has been punished more harshly by an international federation and sports’ governing body, as well as the IOC, than the accusations by the athlete herself.”