Now officially retired from competition, Michael Phelps is still making waves: the 23-time Olympic gold medalist is part of a group of experts testifying before a congressional subcommittee next week about the issue of doping.
USA Today and others report that Phelps is one of five experts testifying before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations next Tuesday. The rest of the group includes U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, IOC medical and scientific director Richard Bludgett, World Anti-Doping Agency deputy director Rob Koehler and Olympic champion shot putter Adam Nelson.
The focus of the subcommittee hearing is “Ways to Improve and Strengthen the Anti-Doping System,” per USA Today.
Phelps should have an interesting perspective on the status of doping, as his storied career has seen him compete alongside and against multiple athletes nailed for doping violations. And the longevity of Phelps’ career gives him unique perspective on whether the athletic landscape truly is getting worse on the issue of doping. Recently, more and more doping violations have become public, and doping was a dark shadow over the 2016 Rio Olympics perhaps more than it has ever been in previous Olympiads. Certainly the rise of the internet has caused increased flow of information that could mean the increase of visible doping scandals is merely a product of more doping violations coming to public light than in past years. On the other hand, there are many who allege that doping in athletics is getting progressively more common, even at the youth levels.
So Phelps, who slept in a multi-thousand dollar altitude tent to simulate high altitude (and perhaps to boost natural production of EPO), who wore expensive high tech suits during the crazy era, is going to testify to Rep Sensenbrenner (who backed Lance Armstrong and tried to influence ONDCP) about issues of unfair competition. OK.
YES, THIS IS DEFINITELY WHAT CONGRESS SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON RIGHT NOW.
Lol I had that thought too. But it’s not like our entire congress is meeting to focus on this issue. It’ll just be a few members from the committee and probably their intern staffers doing the follow-up work. It’s a good way to draw attention to the issue of doping and maybe something positive comes out of it… Haha actually now that I’m thinking about it I bet everyone congress shows up and they ask MP for autographs after lol. Yea, they’re not above that haha.
It’s the subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Not Congress itself
It’s a good thing politicians try to improve the fight against doping.
And don’t worry about the rest. You will not be disappointed. Your R Congress will not disappoint. They will cut health budgets, public education or food aid to compensate for another wave of very useful tax breaks for the top 1%. They will deregulate once again the financial system to thank their big Wall Street contributors and too bad if there’s another huge financial crisis in the next few years. They will vote anti-environment, anti-gay and anti-women bills. And they will restrict the rights of vote.
Welcome to America.
@Bobo You are 5,000 km away from the US, and our politics still seems to be affecting you. What’re you going to do if Marine Le Pen is elected as your next President? 🙂
If Paris is awarded the 1924 Olys, what will you do if Le Pen opens them? 🙂
Paris was indeed awarded the 1924 Olympics! Harold Abrahams won the 100m dash after training on the beach in slow motion to the music of Vangelis.
Have to agree with Steve Nolan here. This is a waste of time. Congress has plenty of other items of the day. This is the domain of the IOC.
At first when I saw the title I thought he was coming back and then I fully ready the title and article and then I was disappointed