東京五輪選手に薬物提供、被告が有罪認める

【ニューヨークＡＦＰ＝時事】米司法省は８日、２０２１年の東京五輪に出場した選手に運動能力強化薬を提供したとして訴追された療法士の男が、有罪を認めたと発表した。（写真は東京五輪に出場したナイジェリアのブレッシング・オカグバレ）
　テキサス州エルパソで「自然療法」専門医として活動するエリック・リラ被告は、ロシアによる国家ぐるみのドーピングスキャンダルを受けて２０２０年に制定された「ロドチェンコフ反ドーピング法」が個人として初めて適用されていた。
　被告は東京五輪開幕を前に、女子短距離ナイジェリア代表のブレッシング・オカグバレ選手らに薬物を提供していたことが判明。オカグバレ選手は大会前にスロバキアで行われた抜き打ち検査でヒト成長ホルモン（ＨＧＨ）の陽性反応を示し、東京五輪の１００メートル準決勝を前に大会から追放され、その後１０年間の資格停止処分を受けた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/05/09-16:54）

A Texas therapist faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to supplying performance-enhancing drugs to Olympic athletes including banned Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare, US authorities said.
Eric Lira, a naturopathic therapist based in the city of El Paso, is the first individual to be convicted under a new US law introduced in the wake of Russia's state-backed Olympic doping scandals, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
The 2020 law, named after Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, enables US authorities to prosecute individuals involved in international doping fraud conspiracies.
Lira was found to have supplied drugs to Okagbare in the build-up to the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Okagbare, who was subsequently banned from the sport for 10 years, was expelled from the Tokyo Olympics just before 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 before the games.
US Attorney Damian Williams said Monday after Lira pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan that 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, Williams said.
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 maximum sentence for violating the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act is 10 years in prison. Lira's sentence will be determined by a judge at a later date, the Justice Department statement said.
US anti-doping officials welcomed Lira's conviction, noting that it was only made possible by the recently enacted law.
Without this law, Lira, who held himself out as a doctor to athletes, likely would have escaped consequence for his distribution of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs and his conspiracy to defraud the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games because he did not fall under any sport anti-doping rules, said Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, a nonprofit.