US anti-doping act should be used at Beijing Games: Anti-doping agency's Tygart

BEIJING: An anti-doping act that allows American authorities to prosecute foreign athletes or officials outside the United States should be applied at the Beijing Winter Olympics if US competitors are affected, the country's anti-doping chief said on Friday (Feb 11).

The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (RADA), signed into law in the US in 2020, gives US authorities the power to prosecute individuals for doping schemes at international events involving American athletes, sponsors or broadcasters.

The RADA bill empowers prosecutors to seek fines of up to US$1 million and jail terms of up to 10 years. It was named after Grigory Rodchenkov, a former Russian anti-doping laboratory head who turned whistleblower and helped expose Russia's state-sponsored doping.

While there have been no confirmed doping cases involving high-profile athletes in Beijing, Russian teenage sensation, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, who won gold for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the figure skating team event, has been training under a cloud, with Russian media saying she had tested positive.

US won silver, and Japan was third in the event.

"I think all those who value clean sport would absolutely be advocating for that (application of Rodchenkov act)," Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, told Reuters Television on Friday.

"Many of us were disappointed in the initial state-sponsored doping (in Russia) that was exposed back in 2015, that those who orchestrated and conspired to abuse young athletes ... were not held accountable by their sport or their own governments."

Russian athletes at the Games are not competing under their flag, and their anthem is not played at any ceremonies following sanctions imposed for widespread doping