Written by History was made last week. Well, history is made every week, but on January 12th, the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York filed the first ever charges under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2019. Shortly thereafter, the FBI office in El Paso, Texas took Eric Lira, a self proclaimed “Naturopathic Therapist” into custody to face two charges: Count One, International Sports Doping, and Count Two: Misbranded Conspiracy. The criminal complaint alleges that Eric Lira had distributed performance enhancing drugs to two professional track and field athletes with the intention of corrupting the field for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Although the criminal complaint does not mention the two athletes by name, the personal identifiers point to “athlete one” being the Nigerian short sprinter, Blessing Okagbare. Blessing had competed in the opening heat of the 100m race in the Tokyo Olympics before being suspended due to failing a drug test. Athlete 2 is a bit more of a mystery, but given the circumstantial evidence, the short list is a group of track athletes training in the Jacksonville, FL area.
The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (RADA), which was signed into law in December of 2020, is relatively short in nature and states:
The definition of an “international sports competition” is a bit more nuanced (21 USC 2401) Essentially, the law describes an international sporting event as one: that has at least one US athlete, at least three international athletes, is governed by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code Rules, and is receiving sponsorship, broadcast rights, or is doing business with US corporations.
Generally speaking, this law is a huge step in reactivity fighting the issue of doping in high performance international sports. I am not a lawyer myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have some questions about the law. First, if you read the first line of the law above, it states “it shall be unlawful for anyone other than an athlete…” So essentially, if an athlete received PEDs from a doctor and uses them, the doctor gets arrested while the athlete walks free? Okay.
What is the definition of “international athlete” and why does there need to be “at least three” international athletes? What does that mean exactly, and why the number three? Are we talking about having just three international athletes( one American and three Italians) or are we looking at needing three different athletes representing at least three different countries? (An American, an Irishman, a Malaysian, and an Argentinian walk into a stadium…)
For example, in an international friendly match between Team USA Soccer and Japan, does that count as an “international sports competition?” We only have two athlete nationality groups competing and the contest is outside of FIFA, and is therefore not an international championship level competition. But there are 22 international Japanese athletes on the other side. The game is also governed by WADA code and NBC Sports has the broadcast rights. Would it be okay to cheat and take PEDs in this case?
Then there is the concept of how far down the line “international competition” designation goes. Let’s keep this example in the United States and in the track & field world, as the sport not only is my specialty, but also has no shortage of dopers. On June 11th of 2021, a few weeks before the start of the USA Track & Field (USATF) Olympic Trials, Shelby Houlihan, the American 1500m record holder, tested positive for Nandrolone, a WADA banned substance. The Olympic Trials are sponsored by US brands, have US broadcast rights, and are governed by WADA code. They do not contain any international athletes, so the direct definition of “international sports competition” does not apply. But the very nature of the US Trials is to determine the US Olympic Team, and the Olympics fit the Rodchenkov Act’s definition like a glove. Ms. Houlihan was considered a top seed and prospect to make the US Olympic team.
Hear me out. If an athlete is trying to cheat in the Olympic trials, then they are trying to influence the selection of the US delegation, which in turn influences the Olympics. Essentially, cheating in the trials is participating in a conspiracy to affect the Olympic competition field. To me, a good lawyer can easily make the proximate cause argument here. After all, RADA is essentially an anti-fraud statute, and proximate cause is a legal philosophy that applies to fraud. So why isn’t the Department of Justice investigating where Ms. Houlihan got her Nandrolone? Because we all know it certainly wasn’t from her pork burrito.
But what is fascinating to me is what would have happened if Shelby was able to avoid a positive test for another month, make the Olympic team, compete in the Olympics, then test positive. Would that have triggered an investigation under RADA? Or would the DOJ have looked the other way as Shelby is an Iowan born American athlete?
These are all questions and situations that will be created through how the Department of Justice uses the law to prosecute. The law is new, so precedent can be set. In my opinion, the DOJ and FBI have proximate cause to use the law to attack doping conspiracies at national level qualifying events for international competition, such as an Olympic trials event.
For now, we need to wait. The Eric Lira case is a slam dunk conviction, he gave WADA banned substances to an athlete who competed in the Olympics…and the FBI has the text messages to prove it. But this is just case one, and we all know there will be more cases.