U.S. Congress Wades Into Anti-Doping Fight

(ATR) The United States Congress will play host to a debate on the future of the world’s anti-doping framework tomorrow.

The House of Representatives oversight and investigations subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce committee will hear five witnesses on "ways to improve and strengthen the international anti-doping system". American Olympians Michael Phelps and Adam Nelson will testify, along with IOC Medical Director Richard Budgett, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Director General Rob Koehler and United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief executive Travis Tygart.

Members of the congressional subcommittee will then have the opportunity to pose questions to those testifying.

The congressional hearing comes at a watershed moment for the anti-doping community, as it is still working to address fallout from revelations of a state-sponsored doping system in Russia. In addition, sport leaders and governments are debating the necessity of an independent WADA.

Tygart, in his strongly-worded written testimony, will say that "the IOC chose not to stand up for clean athletes and against institutionalized doping," and that more must be done to ensure an independent WADA. Tygart says that the IOC could "put clean athletes and fair play first" today through removing itself from WADA and robustly financing efforts needed to keep doping out of sport.

"The personal well-being of the next generation of clean athletes hangs in the balance," Tygart will say. "The truth is, if we don't push, if we don’t win, we will likely find ourselves back in this same position, years from now, staring another state-supported doping system in the face – one that has abused its athletes, and robbed another generation of clean athletes in the process."

Both Phelps and Nelson will speak about how athletes worldwide must be held to similar standards to those in the United States.

Phelps says it frustrated him as an athlete to watch "another athlete break through performance barriers in unrealistic timeframes," without going through the robust, invasive, testing he did. To fix this problem Phelps says all athletes’ testing must be done with "consistency and independence".

Nelson says the solution to the patchwork anti-doping fight worldwide is to "[align] the culture of sport with the policies and standards we wish to support". Nelson’s testimony includes his personal anecdote of "winning" the 2004 shot put gold medal eight years later after the first winner failed a doping retest. Nelson received his 2004 gold medal in the food court of the Atlanta international airport.

"WADA needs to hold every country to the same standard to which they hold the athlete; failure to comply at the national federation or Olympic committee level should be treated with a similar set of sanctions as those for non-compliant athletes," Nelson says. "Finally, we have to align the compensation structure of all parties to support the objectives of clean sport."

While Nelson, Phelps, and Tygart urged Congress to discuss different ways to address the world anti-doping framework, Koehler and Budgett’s testimony describes the steps taken by both WADA and the IOC.

Koehler speaks of three objectives that WADA has outlined in the last three years. Koehler says WADA must enhance its investigations capability, launch its whistleblower program, and monitor the compliance of each national anti-doping organization. From there, WADA will produce a new budget showing what the body needs to move forward.

"Twelve months ago, we spoke of being at a ‘crossroads’ in the fight against doping," Koehler says. "Today I can stand before you and clearly state that the anti-doping movement has chosen its path, and is well underway on the journey of building on its accomplishments, with a strengthened, empowered and independent WADA at the helm."

Budgett reiterates the IOC’s support for WADA’s three objectives as well as the creation of an International Testing Authority to be used at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. The ITA’s strength will come from a "harmonized standard for anti-doping testing," according to Budgett.

"Let me reiterate that the IOC’s ultimate goal is the protection of clean athletes and that we are fully determined to cooperate with all the actors engaged in the fight against doping in sport," Budgett concludes. "This not only includes WADA, the International Federations and the athletes, with their entourage, but also the Governments."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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