Not long after a bill that would criminalize international doping conspiracies advanced in the US Congress, world Olympic and anti-doping leaders made clear how they felt about the development.
They started lobbying for changes in Washington.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have each devoted six-figure budgets to get word out on their issues with the Rodchenkov Act.
The bill — named after Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of the now-defunct Anti-Doping Center in Moscow, who blew the whistle on Russia’s cheating at the Sochi Olympics — was last month passed by the US House of Representatives and is now awaiting action in the US Senate.
The measure calls for fines of up to US$1 million and prison sentences of up to 10 years for those who participate in schemes designed to influence international sports competitions through doping.
It would also allow the US Anti-Doping Agency to obtain information collected by federal investigators, which could help prosecute anti-doping cases.
WADA president Craig Reedie said that the agency favored the part of the bill that calls for transferring information.
“The area which is troublesome is the suggestion that American jurisdiction would go beyond the United States and might create liability in other parts of the world,” Reedie said.
WADA documents obtained by reporters say that the agency has budgeted “at least” US$250,000 to continue the lobbying effort into next year.
The bill, according to a news release from its sponsor, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, “would establish criminal penalties for participating in a scheme in commerce to influence a major international sport competition through prohibited substances or methods.”
However, language that would have made athletes vulnerable to prosecution for doping was stripped out of the bill.
That language, some critics felt, could have discouraged foreign athletes from competing in the US.
Rodchenkov’s lawyer, Jim Walden, said that the IOC’s position on the law proves it “would rather host dirty games than have anyone else police doping fraud.”
“If the IOC and WADA want to lobby US lawmakers on behalf of Russia’s corrupt interests, that is a serious problem and I would encourage our congressmen and senators to be very wary of these efforts,” Walden said.
Rob Koehler of the athlete’s group Global Athlete said that he was similarly surprised, “given the bill’s ability to eradicate the people who are enabling doping.”
The IOC said that it was appreciative of efforts to control doping in the US.
“However, it is a matter of concern that the intention of the proposed legislation is to put athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees from around the world who take part in international competition under the criminal code of US law,” an IOC spokesman said in a statement.
US Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart dismissed that idea, citing the removal of the language involving individual athletes.
It will soon become clear how effective the lobbying efforts are.
The bill, especially after it was revised, has gained wide support. It passed on a voice vote, without opposition, in the House. It has bipartisan support in the Senate.
In a sign of how seriously it takes the issue, the White House has assigned a political appointee, Kendel Ehrlich, to its Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Last month, the office hosted a first-of-its-kind summit to discuss doping in sports.
TOOTHLESS: Bologna never looked like finding a way back, and Antonio Conte and his substitutes were waiting to celebrate long before the final whistle SSC Napoli on Monday lifted the Italian Supercoppa with a 2-0 win over Bologna in Riyadh, David Neres netting both goals to earn the league champions a deserved victory over the toothless Coppa Italia winners. Neres opened the scoring with a stunning strike from distance six minutes before halftime and found the net again in the 57th minute when Bologna were caught trying to play out of defense. “We came here as champions of Italy, we wanted this trophy and we showed it with a great performance,” Napoli forward Matteo Politano told Mediaset. “We could have scored a few more goals, but
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
Fulham on Monday climbed away from the English Premier League relegation zone and left Nottingham Forest mired in the fight for survival after Raul Jimenez’s penalty sealed a 1-0 win. Marco Silva’s side started the day just two points above fourth-bottom Forest, but Jimenez’s first-half goal at Craven Cottage moved them 10 points clear of the bottom three. While Fulham’s relegation fears were eased heading into the Christmas schedule, Forest are just five points ahead of third-bottom West Ham United in the scrap to avoid crashing into the Championship. Forest had won six of their previous eight games in all competitions, with a
RSS