Award-winning documentary delves deep into sport's doping culture

In Greek mythology, Icarus, son of Daedalus, plunges and drowns in the Icarian sea when he ignored his father's warnings that the sun would melt the wax on his wings if he attempted to fly too high.

In Olympic sport, no such warning exists. "Do not fly too close to the sun" is anathema to the Olympic motto of "faster, higher, stronger".

Add the incentives of medals, prize money, sponsorships and glory, is it any wonder that elite sportsmen seek any boost possible to fulfil that motto?

Icarus is also the name of an enthralling and eye-opening documentary on Russia's enormous state-sponsored doping system, and is now out on Netflix. If you have not yet watched it, I highly recommend that you do.

The central character is Grigoriy Rodchenkov, who was the director of the sport anti-doping laboratory in Russia over the period in question.

He starts out as an adviser of sorts to director Bryan Fogel, an accomplished amateur cyclist who initially sets out to make a movie documenting how easy it is to dope and evade anti-doping tests.

To do so he needs an anti-doping "sage", someone who is well versed in anti-doping's methods but who is willing to play the other side to facilitate risk-free doping for the sake of an intellectual argument.

That person, eventually, is Rodchenkov, who is suggested to Fogel by Don Catlin, his American counterpart, and who had begun giving Fogel advice on how to beat the tests.

Indeed, the most interesting aspect of the movie to me was an interview in which Catlin, a respected anti-doping expert, says in turn that "100% of elite athletes are doping", and that the World Anti-Doping Agency is incapable of catching drug cheats.

There's a movie in that alone - Catlin is probably exaggerating, and I don't know his motives for what appears an extreme and totally disillusioned viewpoint, but there is a growing acceptance that anti-doping is unfit for purpose, and that sophisticated dopers are easily able to sidestep what has become a very costly and cumbersome, but ultimately ineffective system.

Catlin's views, however, are quickly set aside because Rodchenkov, an obviously sinister character who is strangely jolly and eccentric, is implicated in what has become known as one of the great frauds in sporting history. The exposure begins when German media introduces the world to two Russian whistleblowers who allege that Russia has been involved in a centralised doping programme for decades.

This triggers (grudgingly, it must be said) a Wada investigation that culminates in two reports, known as McLaren I and II, which Icarus brings to life. It also leads to the resignation of Rodchenkov, who flees to the US and eventually enters witness protection with the help of Fogel.

That Fogel and Rodchenkov are collaborators on a documentary before this all happens is serendipitous for Fogel, whose documentary understandably "zigs" in a totally different direction once the Russian doping scandal comes to light.

It does mean we are left hanging a little with respect to his initial doping plan (much of the footage of this plan was edited out, apparently), and the intriguing threads provided by the likes of Catlin (how easy is it to cheat, really?) are left unpulled. Perhaps this leaves room for a sequel.

Much is left unsaid, mainly because of the Rodchenkov and Russia focus. There is a danger that Icarus becomes a monument to those "evil Reds", whose doping is admittedly unparalleled in scale in modern sport, but not in concept - Fogel's initial motive for the movie was disillusionment after Lance Armstrong's confession, and Armstrong did not enjoy government and secret agency backing.

The reality, then, is that Russia chose the route of "state-sponsored" doping, when the rest of the world (the honest "West" if you fall into the lazy narrative trap) went for the "privatised" version - small, agile teams that don't need KGB help to dodge testers.

It really is that easy. So, while Icarus understandably tells the Russia story, long after the credits have rolled it is Catlin's words and Fogel's pursuit that are more concerning.