Sheila Jackson Lee: “Join me in supporting the RADA bill. I thank Isabella Belcher and the OSCE staff. Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced…”

“Join me in supporting the RADA bill. I thank Isabella Belcher and the OSCE staff. Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced H.R. 6067, the Rodchenkov Anti- Doping Act (``RADA'') because in the realm of international sports, it has become almost commonplace for too many athletes to yield to the temptation of bridging the gap between their own skill and the pinnacle of athletic achievement by resorting to performance enhancing drugs. And to conceal this fall from grace, cheaters are employing increasingly sophisticated modes of masking the use of any proscribed drugs. The United States has a large role to play in ferreting out corruption in international sports. Not only do U.S. athletes lose out on millions in sponsorships, but when a U.S. company spends millions to create a marketing campaign around an athlete, only to have that athlete later implicated in a doping fraud scandal, the damage to that company's brand can cost tens of millions. This has been the story of Alysia Montafio, a U.S. runner who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics games in London and placed fifth place in the 800 meters behind two Russian women finishing first and third. These women were later found to have engaged in doping fraud by the World Anti-Doping Agency, meaning that Ms. Montano had rightfully finished third, which would have earned her a bronze medal. Ms.…”