Eric Lira, the man who supplied Blessing Okagare performance enhancing drugs is facing 10 years imprisonment after admitting he supplied prohibited substances to the Nigerian sprinter and others.
The America born Lira, 43, was arraigned before a US Federal High Court judge Monday. He is the first defendant to be charged under a new US law introduced in the wake of Russia’s state-backed Olympic doping scandals.
The 2020 law is named after Russian whistle blower Grigory Rodchenkov.
US Attorney Damian Williams said the case was a “watershed moment for international sport”.
“Lira provided banned performance-enhancing substances to Olympic athletes who wanted to corruptly gain a competitive edge.
“Such craven efforts to undermine the integrity of sport subverts the purpose of the Olympic Games: to showcase athletic excellence through a level playing field.
“Lira’s efforts to pervert that goal will not go unpunished. The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act enables US authorities to prosecute individuals involved in “doping schemes for the purpose of influencing international sports competitions including those who have not previously been governed by sport anti-doping laws.”
Lira was found to have supplied drugs to Nigerian Okagbare, who last year was banned from athletics for 11 years. Also her training partner Divine Oduduru has been suspended by the Athletes Integrity Unit.
Okagbare was expelled from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics just before she was scheduled to run the women’s 100m semi-finals after it emerged she had tested positive for human growth hormone in an out-of-competition test in Slovakia.
