Texas man charged with giving 2020 Olympic athletes performance drugs

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(NEW YORK) — A naturopathic therapist who operates out of El Paso, Texas, has been charged with distributing multiple performance-enhancing drugs to at least two athletes for the purpose of cheating at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, federal prosecutors in New York said.

The charges against Eric Lira are the first brought under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, a measure signed into law in December 2020 that outlaws doping schemes at international sports competitions, including the Olympics.

Lira, 41, allegedly obtained misbranded human growth hormone and the blood building drug erythropoietin in advance of the Tokyo Games from sources