The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced Thursday that it has handed over the dossiers of 298 Russian athletes to 28 different anti-doping organizations (ADOs), including 27 international sports federations, as part of a five-year investigation into "institutionalized doping" in Russia.

An earlier independent investigation by Richard McLaren's group found evidence of falsification of anti-doping test results and hundreds of positive samples disappeared in a wide range of sports. Some Russian athletes were excluded from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics following McLaren's report.

WADA's Independent Information and Investigation (I&I) team completed the "painstaking" process of building a case on each athlete after obtaining a copy of the Moscow laboratory information management system.

Russia was required to turn over the LIMS data by December 31, 2018 as a condition for the country to be considered "compliant" with the WADA Code, but when it finally turned over the data, investigators found evidence that the LIMS data had been falsified.

Of the 298 athlete cases, 145 were affected by the tampering, but WADA said it would ensure that "the relevant authorities have access to and evaluate all available evidence" when deciding whether to pursue action.

Due to the manipulation of LIMS data, WADA declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency "non-compliant" for four years.

Now that the Olympics have been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak, the case against Russia could be resolved before the Tokyo Summer Olympics are held.

The fate of the 298 athletes is now in the hands of the relevant bodies, which will decide whether to pursue action; WADA has said it will review each ADO's decision and, if necessary, appeal to CAS. [Gunther Younger, director of WADA's I&I team, said, "The WADA investigation team is making steady progress in this extremely difficult, lengthy, and multifaceted investigation. We are building these case packages based on all available evidence and we will continue to provide assistance and advice to the relevant associations as they evaluate whether to submit them as doping cases."

"The fact that we are now moving into the results management phase for the entire target group means that we are another step closer to bringing wrongdoers to justice. This has always been a goal for us as we continue to do what is best for clean sport and athletes around the world."

WADA President Witold Baninka emphasized how huge the scale of the investigation is. He said, "This is the most complex investigation in the history of anti-doping, and the WADA investigation team is doing a fantastic job. It is a huge undertaking involving thousands of samples, 24 terabytes of data, hundreds of athletes across 28 organizations, and it is yielding real results." [The Russian doping crisis has dominated WADA's time and resources for the past five years, and WADA's investigation team has been on the front lines. I want to thank them for their diligence, professionalism, and expertise, as well as the organizations currently receiving case packages, for the work they do and their continued cooperation to protect clean sport and bring as many cheats to justice as possible."