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The State of Play

Members

Representative Chris Smith

Co-Chairman

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Senator Ben Cardin

Ranking Senate Commissioner

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Representative Michael Burgess

Commissioner

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

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Representative Sheila Jackson Lee

Commissioner

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Witnesses

Dagmar Freitag

Chairwoman

Sports Committee of the German Bundestag

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Yuliya Stepanova

World-class Russian athlete and anti-doping whistleblower

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Travis Tygart

CEO

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency

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Katie Uhlaender

U.S. Olympian

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Jim Walden

Partner, Walden Macht & Haran LLP

Attorney for Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov

Doping in international sport defrauds clean athletes and sponsors, and is inextricably linked with globalized corruption. However, international sports bodies like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) appear unable or unwilling to curtail it. While the United States acts against many other forms of transnational crime, doping remains largely unpunished.

Courageous whistleblowers have brought to light the unprecedented extent to which Russia has sought to defraud the international community through doping. Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow anti-doping lab, and Yuliya Stepanova, a world-class Russian athlete, revealed a complex web of deception that enabled Russia to cheat at international sporting events going back decades.

To root out doping and corruption in international sport, Helsinki Commissioners Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) and Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D., (TX-26) recently introduced the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (RADA). The bipartisan legislation establishes civil remedies and criminal penalties for doping fraud violations at major international competitions. Helsinki Commissioners Rep. Gwen Moore (WI-04) and Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) cosponsored the bill.

Witnesses at this hearing discussed this legislation and explored the impact of doping fraud and its relationship to globalized corruption.

 

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