A new page in history or a one-off affair? For the first time, a man has been indicted by American courts for supplying performance-enhancing products to athletes. For the first time since its enactment, the Rodchenkov Act was used by a court in the United States to convict an individual in a doping case.
The American Eric Lira, 43, a therapist who presents himself as a doctor “ kinesiologist and naturopath", was indicted on Monday May 8 by the courts of his country. He had pleaded guilty to supplying performance-enhancing drugs to several athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Games, including Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare (pictured above).
His sentence will be determined later, but he faces up to 10 years in prison. Eric Lira is based in El Paso, Texas. According to his testimony, he supplied performance-enhancing products to Blessing Okagbare before the Tokyo Games. The Nigerian, suspended for 11 years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), was excluded from the competition before the semi-finals of the women's 100m. A check carried out on July 19 revealed the presence of growth hormone in his samples.
Another athlete linked to the Texan therapist, the Swiss Alex Wilson, national record holder in 100 and 200 m, was also suspended for doping.
According to the office of Manhattan prosecutor Damian Williams, Eric Lira had advised his athletes to attribute their possible positive tests to contaminated meat, even though he knew perfectly well that the tests could detect the presence of performance-enhancing products.
At first glance, the Eric Lira affair is little different from the multiple cases of doping revealed in international athletics. But the Americans are willing to swear on the Bible: it marks a turning point in the fight against cheating in sport.
The Texan officially became, on Monday May 8, the first victim of the Rodchenkov law. Voted on December 4, 2020, it took the name of the former director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, at the origin of the revelations on organized doping in Russia between 2011 and 2015. The Russian is today a refugee in UNITED STATES.
Presented in the United States as a historic step forward, but criticized by part of the sports movement, the law authorizes American justice to prosecute all people, regardless of their nationality, involved in an international doping system.
Unmeasured reaction from Damian Williams: “ This conviction is a decisive moment: it marks a turning point for international sport. Eric Lira supplied banned performance-enhancing substances to athletes, who wanted to gain an advantage through corruption. Such efforts to undermine the integrity of sport run counter to the purpose of the Olympic Games, which is to showcase athletic excellence through a level playing field. His efforts to pervert this goal will not go unpunished"
Same story with Travis Tygart, the head of the American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA): “ Without this law, the man who presented himself as a doctor for athletes would probably have escaped the consequences of his distribution of performance-enhancing drugs and his plot to defraud the Tokyo Olympics. »
Without a doubt. But the Rodchenkov law is not new. It was promulgated almost two and a half years ago. To date, it has only identified one actor involved in a doping case.
