Doping in the United States
WADA was founded at a time when individual governments, sport federations, and the IOC all had differing definitions, policies, and sanctions for doping.
WADA bridged these differences by setting unified anti-doping standards and coordinating the efforts of sports organizations and public authorities worldwide.
[6] Similar to the definitional disputes the international community faced in the 1990s, national professional sports leagues in the U.S. approach anti-doping policy differently and independently of U.S. government regulation, WADA guidelines, and one another.
Deciding that U.S. athletes needed chemical assistance to remain competitive, Ziegler worked with the CIBA Pharmaceutical Company to develop an oral anabolic steroid.
The American specialist in doping, Max M. Novich, wrote: "Trainers of the old school who supplied treatments which had cocaine as their base declared with assurance that a rider tired by a six-day race would get his second breath after absorbing these mixtures.
Following the race, the IOC stripped him of his gold medal[13] after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax.
[14][12] In 2003, Wade Exum, the United States Olympic Committee's director of drug control administration from 1991 to 2000, gave copies of documents to Sports Illustrated that revealed that some 100 American athletes failed drug tests from 1988 to 2000, arguing that they should have been prevented from competing in the Olympics but were nevertheless cleared to compete; among those athletes were Carl Lewis, Joe DeLoach and Floyd Heard.
[15][16][17][18] Before showing the documents to Sports Illustrated, Exum tried to use them in a lawsuit against USOC, accusing the organization of racial discrimination and wrongful termination against him and cover-up over the failed tests.
The USOC claimed his case "baseless" as he himself was the one in charge of screening the anti-doping test program of the organization and clarifying that the athletes were cleared according to the rules.
[19][20] Exum's documents revealed that Carl Lewis had tested positive three times at the 1988 Olympics trials for minimum amounts of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine, which were banned stimulants.
[19] Fellow Santa Monica Track Club teammates Joe DeLoach and Floyd Heard were also found to have the same banned stimulants in their systems, and were cleared to compete for the same reason.
"[19] Following Exum's revelations the IAAF acknowledged that at the 1988 Olympic Trials the USOC indeed followed the correct procedures in dealing with eight positive findings for ephedrine and ephedrine-related compounds in low concentration.
Greg LeMond became an international phenom in the early 1980s but he jumped directly to the pro level in Europe and was never under the tutelage of USA Cycling.
[citation needed] Prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics the US cycling team had hired Polish coach Eddie Borysewicz to compete with the traditional international powerhouses of East Germany and the Soviet Union, who used extensive doping programs.
Borysewicz would introduce the team to blood doping, a practice that was frowned upon among clean sport purists, but not something that was illegal at that time in international competition or the Olympics.
The United States cycling team won several medals at the 1984 Olympics, men and women, although they did so without the Eastern Bloc nations competing as they boycotted the games.
As a result, a new generation of American cyclists emerged, many of whom would compete at the highest level including Lance Armstrong, Bobby Julich, George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Fred Rodriguez, Kevin Livingston and Floyd Landis.
This did not first come to light among fans and reporters until the 1998 Festina Affair, but even this major incident was not enough to change the practices of most pro level riders and teams.
Also around this time Olympic medalist Tyler Hamilton, who had left Armstrong and the US Postal team a few years earlier to find success elsewhere, became involved in the Operation Puerto doping scandal.
While no American has reached the pinnacle of the sport by winning Olympic Gold, the Tour de France or World Championship in recent years there have been numerous Americans who have had success riding cleanly at the highest level including Andrew Talansky, Tejay van Garderen, Ben King, Joe Dombrowski and Chris Horner.
[39] In 2009, nearly one in ten retired National Football League (NFL) players polled in a confidential survey said they had used now-banned anabolic steroids while still playing.
[43] While recently MLB and the NHL decided to permanently ban athletes for a third offense, they have long been resistant to such measures, and random testing is in its infancy.
[citation needed] According to NFL rules all players are subject to pre-employment, annual, seasonal, post-seasonal, and off-season urine testing.
Sportswriter Mike Freeman recalls a Hall of Fame Coach telling him that "For every one or two PED (performance-enhancing drug) cheats the NFL catches, 10 go free.
[55] The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revisited the NFL's anti-drug policy on December 12, 2012, specifically as it relates to testing for human growth hormone (HGH).
Adolpho Birch, the NFL's senior vice president for law and labor policy, stated the following when interviewed by The New York Times in February 2013: "It has been a stall.
[61] Drugs that are banned in the National Hockey League (NHL) are determined by the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) list of prohibited performance-enhancing substances.
To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent doping in the United States with a performance-enhancing substance, the USADA provides education, leads scientific initiatives, conducts testing, and oversees the results management process.
[66][67] In 2001, USADA was recognized by the U.S. Congress as "the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sport in the United States.
"[68] While USADA is not a government entity, it is partly funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), with its remaining budget generated from contracts for anti-doping services with sport organizations, most notably the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
