Icarus, film that helped expose Russian doping, wins at Oscars

Bryan Fogel's "Icarus", the film which stumbled upon one of the largest sports scandals in recent memory, won the Oscar for Best Documentary on Sunday.

The Netflix documentary began with Fogel, an amateur cyclist, attempting to prove how easy it is to beat drug tests. He later met Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, then director of the Moscow anti-doping lab, and helped expose Russia's widespread doping of its athletes across 30 sports.

More than 1,000 athletes were implicated in Russia's state-sponsored doping program. 111 Russian winter athletes were ruled ineligible for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, although some were instead invited to compete as "Olympic Athletes from Russia."

While filming "Icarus", two of Rodchenkov's colleagues died under mysterious circumstances, which led to the doctor fleeing to the United States.

Rodchenkov first told his story to The New York Times in May 2016, when he claimed he feared for his life even under protection from the U.S. Department of Justice.