In the months preceding the event around 40 Russian athletes received doping bans. The most prominent of these were Darya Pishchalnikova (discus runner-up at the 2012 Summer Olympics) and Olga Kuzenkova (former Olympic and world champion in the hammer throw). The Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev defended the bans as proof of the increasing effectiveness of RUSADA (the Russian Anti-Doping Agency) which had been formed three years before. According to "The New York Times", Pishchalnikova was a whistleblower who sent the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) a December 2012 email detailing state-run doping programs in which Russian athletes had to participate; her ban by the Russian Athletics Federation was likely in retaliation.