American Pleads Guilty to Providing Prohibited Drugs to Blessing Okagbare and Other Athletes

According to US authorities, a Texas therapist faces up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday, May 8, to supplying performance-enhancing drugs to Olympic athletes, including banned Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare.

Eric Lira, a ‘naturopathic’ therapist based in El Paso, is the first person to be convicted under a new US law enacted in the aftermath of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping scandals, according to the Department of Justice.

Following the Russian doping scandal, the 2020 law, named after Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, allows US authorities to prosecute individuals involved in international doping fraud conspiracies.

Okagbare was found to have received drugs from Lira the run-up to the pandemic-affected Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Okagbare was expelled from the Tokyo Olympics just before the women’s 100m semi-finals after testing positive for human growth hormone in an out-of-competition test in Slovakia before the Games. She was later banned from the sport for ten years.

After Lira pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, US Attorney Damian Williams called the case a “watershed moment for international sport.”

“Lira provided banned performance-enhancing substances to Olympic athletes who wanted to corruptly gain a competitive edge,” Williams stated.

“Such craven efforts to undermine sport’s integrity undermine the Olympic games’ purpose: to showcase athletic excellence on a level playing field.”

“Lira’s attempts to the run-up to the pandemic-affected Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Okagbare was expelled from the Tokyo Olympics just before the women’s 100m semi-finals after testing positive for human growth hormone in an out-of-competition test in Slovakia before the Games. She was later banned from the sport for ten years.

After Lira pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, US Attorney Damian Williams called the case a “watershed moment for international sport.”

“Lira provided banned performance-enhancing substances to Olympic athletes who wanted to corruptly gain a competitive edge,” Williams stated.

“Such craven efforts to undermine sport’s integrity undermine the Olympic games’ purpose: to showcase athletic excellence on a level playing field.”

“Lira’s attempts to Perverting that goal will not be tolerated.”

The maximum prison sentence for violating the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act is ten years. A judge will decide Lira’s sentence at a later date, according to the Justice Department statement.

Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, applauded the conviction.

“Without this law, Lira, who falsely represented himself as a doctor to athletes, would have likely escaped punishment for his distribution of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs and conspiracy to defraud the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games because he did not fall under any sport anti-doping rules,” he said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like