Icarus Documentary Rough Draft

       

                                       

    I watched the documentary Icarus, a film that came out on January 20th, 2017 and was directed by

Bryan Fogel.  The film Icarus is about doping scandals in sports, specifically the Russians and their

doping in the Olympics, and how the scandal was exposed.  There are multiple characters who put their

input about the doping scandal through short interviews, but there are two central characters that the

film centers around.  Bryan Fogel, a cyclist who competed against Lance Armstrong, and Grigory

Rodchenkov, who was the head of the Russian doping program that allowed the Russians to get away

with cheating in the Olympics for so long.  The film starts with Bryan and his cycling career, and how

he idolizes Lance Armstrong, who at the time was considered one of the best cyclists in the world. 

However, when Bryan sees the news that Lance was doping, it not only changes his perception of him,

but it also motivates him to start doping in order to explore and answer the question, how were the

athletes who were doping getting away with it?

However, in order to start this process, Bryan needed to connect with someone who was/had been experienced in helping athletes dope before.  This is what led him to connect with Grigory Rodchenkov, who checked this box.  Bryan set up a video call with Grigory to get the load down about how this would go.  Grigory explained to Bryan that he would start off by being assigned dosages by Grigory and begin the doping cycle.  Then when he would start competing, he would take his pee samples and freeze them so that the pee samples were clean rather than dirty.  In a scene where Bryan was taking the samples, they gave his legs some bruising after being inserted, exploring possible negative side effects of doping.

Bryan starts testing out doping by just doing normal rides without competing to see the effects of the doping, specifically how much it improved his performance.  He observes that his performance is much improved, as his times on his rides were dropping.  After that, Bryan begins competing while doping and sees how much of an advantage he has on the field.  He starts off very well, but a problem with the spokes in his bike occurs, effectively taking him out of the race.  Though he did not finish the race well, he achieved his goal of seeing how much of an advantage he had while doping, which he realized was very large.

Shortly after Bryan’s competition, the Russians are in the news for having their Track and Field athletes doping.  During all of this, Grigory discovers that one of his close friends, who worked in the anti-doping industry in Russia, mysteriously died one night.  This indicates to him that his life is in danger as well.  Shortly after, Bryan and Grigory get on a video call and Grigory tells Bryan that his life is in danger.  Byran and Grigory then formulate a plan to get more news out about the Russian program.  They conclude the meeting by deciding that Grigory should flee Russia and go to L.A. where Bryan is living.  Grigory leaves without his wife, kid, or most of his personal belongings.  

Grigory arrives in L.A. from his flight safely and meets Bryan at the airport.  Shortly after his arrival, Grigory is interviewed by Bryan about the Russian doping program. Grigory then reveals how he headed the Russian doping program at one time, and states how they had been doing it since the 60s, and perhaps longer.  He details exactly how they did it, how long they had been doing it, and the system they used to make their athletes seem clean.  He also states that Vladmir Putin, the president of Russia, knew about the program, which explains why Grigory’s life was in danger since Putin knew about Grigory’s history with the program.  

After the information about the Russians was exposed, the Russians were temporarily banned from publicly competing in athletics, which included the Rio 2016 Olympics.  Although the Russians had been exposed, Grigory couldn’t go back to Russia due to the threat this would have on his life.  So, he came to an agreement with the U.S. Government to live in an isolated location in the U.S. that the Russians, and most other people, wouldn’t know about.  Today, Grigory is still living in hiding while Bryan Fogel is still competing in cycling while also directing and producing other documentaries, like The Dissident (Icarus).