Blessing Okagbare’s therapist, Eric Lira was on Wednesday sentenced to three months jail term after he pleaded guilty to supplying performance-enhancing drugs to the Nigerian sprinter and other Olympic athletes, US authorities has said.
Lira, a “naturopathic” therapist based in the city of El Paso, in May 2023 became the first individual to be convicted under a US law introduced in the wake of Russia’s state-backed Olympic doping scandals.
The 2020 law, named after Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, enables US authorities to prosecute individuals involved in international doping fraud conspiracies.
Lira admitted to supplying drugs to Okagbare in the build-up to the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Okagbare 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.
She was subsequently banned from the sport for 10 years.
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message: violating the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act comes with serious consequences up to and including incarceration. That message is especially important this year with the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris,” US attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“In addition to the prison term, Lira, 44, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced to one year of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $16,410,” Williams’s office added.
The maximum sentence for violating the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act is 10 years in prison.
