FILE footage of anti-doping laboratory at the Sochi Olympic Park in 2014.

Reports have emerged that Russian officials took clean urine from athletes months before the Sochi Olympics, and used soda containers and baby bottles passed through a hole in the wall of a testing lab to evade doping tests.

Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russian's anti-doping laboratory told The New York Times details of the elaborate scheme, which he said involved dozens of Russian athletes and officials and replaced tainted samples for at least three gold medalists.

The International Olympic Committee called the report "very worrying," and said Olympic officials would work with the World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has condemned the allegations as "a continuation of the information attack on Russian sport".

Russian athletes are already banned from international competition by the IAAF, the sport's world governing body, after a Wada commission report alleged "state-sponsored" doping in the country.