A British male Olympian is being investigated by anti-doping authorities after US court documents claimed he received banned drugs while in America during 2021.
According to papers filed in New York, the athlete was supplied with performance enhancing drugs by Eric Lira, an American therapist who is facing 10 years in jail under the new Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which has made such activity a criminal offence.
While the British athlete is not named, it is understood the Athletics Integrity Unit is aware of their identity and charges are expected to be imminent. However UK Anti-Doping and UK Athletes have declined to comment.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday and filed in the southern district of New York, says that Lira provided at least three Olympic athletes – representing Nigeria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom – with banned substances, including erythropoietin, human growth hormone and clenbuterol.
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Though none of the athletes are named, details in the records make clear the Nigerian is 100m and 200m star Blessing Okagbare, who withdrew hours before the 100m semi-finals in Tokyo after testing positive for human growth hormone.
The indictment filed by the US prosecutor states that: “Athlete 1 [Okagbare] was not the only Olympic competitor who received PEDs [performance enhancing drugs] from Lira”.
“Lira likewise provided drugs to an athlete competing on behalf of Switzerland in advance of the Olympic Games [Athlete 2] in the summer of 2021, and discussed with an intermediary the detectability on drug tests of one of the prohibited drugs that Lira had provided to Athlete 2.”
Under “indictment 4”, the document states: “Lira separately met with a third Olympic athlete who competed on behalf of the United Kingdom (Athlete 3) multiple times in the summer of 2021 for the purpose of providing him with PEDs.
“In short, Lira travelled across the United States to deliver and/or administer various drugs to various Olympic athletes, all with the calculated aim of impacting the outcome of the Tokyo Olympics. The actual scope of Lira’s offence conduct stands in sharp contrast to his narrow admission of guilt in his sentencing submission.”
The documents also state that two other US coaches, O’Neil Wright and Dewayne Barrett, helped Lira. According to the story, which was broken by the Washington Post on Thursday, the Swiss athlete met Lira at John F. Kennedy international airport to buy human growth hormone. Lira then billed Barrett $4,590, according to the indictment.
