Russian track and field athletes could be banned from competing in next year's Rio Olympics after a World Anti Doping Agency (Wada) independent commission uncovered a ''deeply rooted culture of cheating'' in Russia.
The 323-page document, released on Monday, includes evidence of Government-backed corruption, bribery, doping and turning a blind eye to positive tests so drug cheats could compete at the 2012 London Olympics.
The vast state-sponsored doping programme also implicates former IAAF president Lamine Diack, who is being investigated over allegations he took payments for deferring sanctions against Russian drug cheats.
Former Russian anti-doping laboratory head Grigory Rodchenkov, who is accused of authorising the disposal of 1417 urine and blood samples to hinder the Wada investigation, is also implicated in the scandal.
Gerrard, a former Olympic swimmer who competed against East German drug cheats in the 1960s, said the sophisticated scandal had come as a ''huge surprise'' to him.
''This is reminiscent to what happened in the former East Germany where for two or three decades the Government, a number of sport scientists, sports physicians, coaches and athletes were implicated in a very similar situation, where they were virtually experimenting with drugs under very clandestine circumstances.
''The parallels are quite amazing,'' Gerrard said.
East German athletes won 203 gold, 192 silver and 177 bronze medals at the winter and summer Olympics from 1956 to 1988.
Gerrard said he was particularly surprised the Wada accredited laboratory in Moscow was implicated.
The laboratory yesterday had its accreditation suspended, but it was not the only Moscow laboratory apparently involved in the scam.
The report said Russia's sports ministry exerted influence on the Wada lab and ordered athletes' samples to be manipulated.
A second, secret lab in Moscow pre-screened blood and urine samples to identify clean ones for the Wada lab.
''I think the term sophisticated is appropriate, because this could not be done by just one person just wanting to put their hand in the till,'' Gerrard said.
''It's a collaboration between a number of very important people from the top of the food chain. This adds to the disgust and dismay you feel for the system that everybody thought was operating in accordance with the rest of the world,'' he said.
Former Russia Athletics Federations president Valentin Balakhnichev, who was in the job for 24 years, is another big name tied up in the scandal.
He resigned in February after a German television documentary - Top Secret Doping: How Russia makes its Winners - screened last December.
It accused 99% of Russian athletes of doping, and sparked the independent report released at the start of the week.
While there were question marks over Russia's anti doping system in the build up to last year's Sochi Winter Olympics, the world power appeared to comply with all the requirements to establish a robust and transparent anti doping programme following the event, Gerrard said.
He believes the scam ''reeks'' of collaboration across several fronts, and said Russian athletes were warned ahead of unannounced testing.
''The biggest deterrent in anti doping today is unannounced, out of competition testing . . . Their athletes have clearly been given signals that this was happening,'' he said.
Gerrard also said the the Russian athletes did not comply with the ''whereabouts'' process, which requires athletes to be available for testing everyday for one hour.
''I understand they were giving the telephone or addresses of coaches, so the coach would be a bit of a back-stop and alert them that the doping authorities were on their tail,'' he said.
Gerrard backs the banning of Russian athletes from next year's Olympics, and said it was no different from banning South Africa from competing at the Games from 1964 to 1988, as part of the sporting boycott during the apartheid era.
''They were kept out of the sport because they were non-compliant with the accepted standards of the rest of the world. I see this as being no different,'' Gerrard said.
''As a former Olympian, I would be dismayed, disappointed and disgusted with the possibility I could be competing against athletes who are receiving a very clear unfair advantage over me.''
While doping is rife in some parts of the world, Gerrard believes New Zealand's athletes are clean.
He credits Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) , which he was chairman of from 2003 to 2010, and the integrity and ethics of our sporting community.
New Zealand does not have an accredited Wada laboratory, and instead sends its samples to the Wada lab in Sydney.
DFSNZ conducts about 1500 tests a year, and priority is given to
elite teams and athletes, who are also tested by the the sporting bodies with which they are linked. When asked if the world was fighting a losing battle against doping, Gerrard said he was optimistic that was not the case.
''The sophistication of the science that we can now bring, plus the intelligence that we use in our testing programmes, I think make it harder for people to beat the system, unless you have got a process as wide-spread and collaborative as the Russians have demonstrated,'' he said.
''In a nutshell, that's the only way you can beat the system today.
''It's much harder if you're a doctor or a coach or an athlete trying to do this today. You will get picked up. Someone will get you in the end.''
