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Stepanova secretly recorded Russian coaches and athletes
describing how they used performance-enhancing drugs - evidence
used to ban more than 100 Russian athletes from the Olympics
this year.
She has been called a traitor by her former coach Vladimir
Kazarin and is currently in hiding in North America with her
husband Vitaly, a former Russian anti-doping official.
"In 2007, for the first time my coach (Kazarin) started giving
me testosterone injections," she told the BBC in an interview.
"I did know it was banned, but before giving it to me I think my
coach prepared me well because he was telling me stories about
how it's normal, that's how it's done.
"Every night I had a dream that the doping inspectors were
coming to test us, every single night the same nightmare. I was
really afraid of being tested because I didn't know how the
system worked.
"I didn't realize that the management was in on it, that even if
you're caught you won't be disqualified if your coach has
connections."
Stepanova, who was given a two-year ban in 2013 for
abnormalities in her blood passport, said that suspension made
her determined to expose how deep the problems in Russian
athletics had actually spread.
"It was a turning-point and I had a choice or rather a second
chance," she added.
"I could return to the same system and simply think, okay so
they're lying, but they'll take me back into the national team
and pay me money or else I could do the right thing."
She spent the next two years gathering evidence, driven by the
desire to expose the truth.
"The reason I was doing it was to show that this was the
system," she said.
"I just wanted them to admit that yes, everyone's doing drugs,
the bosses are covering it up. That's what was important to me."
Stepanova said she thought telling the truth would make things
better.
"I don't consider myself a traitor," she said. "I simply
revealed the shameful truth, which our country doesn't want to
confront, and the only reason I told the truth about it all, was
to try and put a stop to it."
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
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