The Rodchenkov Act was passed by the Senate and will become a law once the US president signs it.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
It allows the USA to initiate legal proceedings against those involved in running doping rings, including coaches, officials, managers or suppliers even if they are not residents of the United States or if the act of doping took place outside the United States.
The main objective of the Rodchenkov Act is to bring to book facilitators who otherwise got away when athletes who tested positive for performance-enhancing substances were banned under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.
The Act seeks to criminalise ‘major international dope fraud conspiracies’, which is mentioned in Section 4 of the Act.
The bill is named after Grigory Rodchenkov, a former director of Russia’s anti-doping lab.
Rodchenkov had moved to the USA and turned whistle-blower after the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
Rodchenkov’s testimony and an independent report by professor Richard McLaren, which concluded that at least 1,000 Russian athletes benefitted from doping, resulted in the nation being banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
