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Hearing in ways to improve the National Antidoping system. Ton heels of the summer games in rio and less than a year away from pyeongchang. Fitting we are holding this hearing on february 28, a champion thats won gold medals and wasnt referring to you mr. Referring to Michael Phelps. Squl it ultimately i hope this hearing hopes to highlight ways which we can strengthen confidence in International Sport. Within the antidoping community there are concerns regarding organizational structure and how the Current System creates an environment where they are both policing and promoting the sport. Wada currently exists, they simultaneously hold policy making decision, they can have real and perceived affects on rigorous possible violations as well as enforcement of antidoping measures, several have stated that wada lacks support itself, recent proposals suggested removing it from governance structures to improve independence and operation today we want to evaluate those concerns and discuss the proposal forms. Further there needs to be an established decisionmaking process. The buck was passed multiple times between the International Olympic committee and antinational doping organizations and sports federations to where and who was in charge of making the decisions of whether or not athletes would be allowed to participate in the summer games. Tsengs a sanctions, and bans but does not appear to be guidelines in consistent penalties. The general public depends on the government bodies to ensure cheating does not become the accepted norm. This is important for our youth. Recent events highlight the needs to utilizing partners and antidoping e antidoping efforts in whistle blowing. Athletes and whistle blowers are often times to see the problems at the ground level and critical to the ability to identify and investigate violations therefore it bears questioning whether the Current System does enough to encourage, embrace and protect those fighting for clean sport. While many meetings have occurred since the rio games, progress remains unclear. This hearing provides an opportunity the learn from past pl mistakes to move forward so that is effective, fair and nimble. The sake of athletes and International Competition using the Olympic Games. Finally some ask why congress is doing a hearing on sports rules. And it is because it is a matter of a multibillion dollars sports economy in maybe. But i believe it is important we send the right message to the youth and athletes of the world that cheating is not acceptable at any level whether in economy, trade or sports. We welcome our allstar panel of witnesses, your appearance before the subcommittee is vital to have a discussion. We are excited to have mr. Phelps and mr. Nelson to share the athletes perspective. They have competed at the highest level and have insights on the challenges that are faced and would like to thank them and look forward to an informative discussion. With that i yield five minutes to the senator from colorado. Thank you. This involves a wide ranging russian scheme to circumvent relied on to ensure clean sport. After unfortunate delays made by courageous russia was systemically involved in doping. The person commissioned by wada, tasked with this released his findings, what it was reported was a systematic effort by russia to help its athlete both dope and circumvent doping controls. The doping was widespread according to wada games, the fiia championships and Many International events. Frankly well probably never know the full extent of cheating and who benefit toted as many a 1,000 might have benefit from the this effort according to wadas investigation. And also found that the very agencies created including the russian antinational doping agency were itself helping to cheat. Even rushs federal Security Service or fsb played a role. It raises troubling questions how the Global Sports community should sanction doping violators, for example because they were made weeks before start of rio games, confusion surfaced whether russia should collectively be banned from rye rio, rather than implement the recommendation, the ioc punted that decision to the International Sports federations who were not all equipped to take on that sudden task. In the end what ensued was a muddled process of sending a very, very weak message to the cheaters, even today im not sure whose job it was to hold russia accountable. Last week several antidoping organizations met in dublin and petitioned that russia be banned from hosting International Sporting vents until the country comes back into compliance with wadas recommendation, but what, if anything, will happen to those recommendations . I understand that the ioc has created two commissions into the wads independent investigation, while i support due process with athletes possibly implicated i believe theres enough finding from wadas investigations that you if you cheat you do not play. How did this persist so long undetected for example . Is wada originganized to catch . Finally a number of National Antidoping organization met in copenhagen last year and put forth recommendations to keep sports clean, they include addressing certain conflicts of interest within wada and clarifying the agencys authority to sanction and investigate doping violators. It is unclear what happened to these recommendations but to believe they may be a blueprint to move forward. As i said before, wadas entire budget is a mere 30 million and the u. S. The largest contributor provides a mere 2 million. The mclaren investigation alone will cost 2 million so clearly we need investigation into this. I want to welcome our witnesses. In particular our two athletes who are here mr. Nelson and mr. Phelps. I think your perspective will really help us. I also think we should thank wada itself and especially want to commend mr. Tieg aarttiegart. For the work in the investigation. Its an unfortunate set of events that forced us into this room today, but i think the international Sports Community need to realize when dealing with russia and its approach to ensuring clean International Competitions the honor system is simply not going to be enough. And i yield back. Now recognize the chairman to have full committee mr. Greg walden berg for five minutes. Thank you i want to welcome all of our witnesses and olympians to help us better understand whats going on in this situation. For censoturies, from the slope of limb o limp i suspect eve in this room knows the emotion collective experience and beauty of sport. Nothing embodies it more than Olympic Games. It is the hallmark recogardlessf nationnality or religion. There is a lot of truth to the message but also cannot be blind to reality. Athletes and nations compete to win. They do not invest countless hours training to lose. They sacrifice for success and victories rewarded. This is why they have sought substance performing and gladiators used her bbherbs and. Drugs have become more sophisticated and the cheaters more creative. Despite improvements at the turn of the century at the World Antidoping Agency wada remains an up hill battle. The temptation to cheat will always be for a cut. Thanks to the courage and tenacity of whistle blowers, journalists and others we were exposed that felt more like a movie script than reality of International Sport. It was not a case of individual athletes looking for an edge, it was state sponsored doping hundreds of athletes knowingly or unknowingly Widespread Campaign to enhance performance, alter results. Despite the shocking allegations later bolstered by a series of independent commissions and reports the response of International Sport has become a hodgepodge of indecisive inconsistent actions. What went wrong . It is one thing for an individual to beat the system but how could it go undetected for so long and what has been the response been in . Its been a quagmire. Thats why were here today to learn from the past in pursuit of a Better Future for clean sport. There will always be those who seek to gain an advantage. The opportunities afforded by scientific invasion too attempting. The challenge is daunting and may never totally be solved but not an excuse for action. We must do better even if its difficult and uncomfortable reforms. Success is not achieved by sitting on the sideline. It requires dedication as your athletes have clearly shown. The millions of Clean Athletes around the world who push the limits of physical and mental exhaustion who sacrifice so much, dont they deserve a similar commitment to those responsible for protecting the integrity of their sport . I believe they do. Thank you mr. Chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. Gentleman yields back. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to begin by thanking our witnesses for the on going commitment of sbintegrity to sports. And i would like to single out travis tieg eert who has aggressive fought for the athletes for drug free competition. Several of us sent a letter to the president of the Olympic International committee to ensure the integrity of sports. When we wrote the letter wada had gun releasing initial findings from its independent investigation into whether russia fell into it. It read like a war novel. Agencies helped athletes dope, even the fsb played a role according to wadas investigation, upon a release of the findings wada recommend it ban russia and russian athletes for participation in the 2016 rio games, however the ioc delegated that decision to the International Sports federations, nororganizations t may not have had the ability to under take such tasks. Even today it remains unclear what sanctions the ioc and other sports related organizations can or will take in response to wadas independent investigation. Collectively these organizations must take decisive action, must send an unambiguous message that they will not be able to create an advantage over athletes. Wadas independent investigation raises serious concerns about policing doping including ability to sanction athletes institutions and even countries that continue to conspire the antidoping code. Im encouraged by the recommendation made by a group of National Antidoping agency that would strength then wada. The group wants to ensure that wada has the authority to investigate suspected doping violations, also want to provide wada Additional Resources to better develop antidoping situations. And remove conflict of interests in order to protect whistle blowers. We all care about the international community, but it will continue to be questioned until an effective antidoping system is in place. Again i want to thank our witnesses for attending this hearing so we can identify what actions are needed moving forward to build a better antidoping system. Finally the underlying cause of what happened and making changes based on those findings is something we must do for the athletes and integrity of the International Sport. Thank you, mr. Chairman and yield back the balance of my time. I ask that the written statements be introduced into the record. Documents will be entered into the record. First welcome adam nelson p, american shot put, and he is currently the president of the track and athletes association, mr. Nelson was never properly awarded his medal for his olympic achievements i would like to take a moment to congratulate him and in the spirit of clean and fair sport. Its a shame it had to happen at a airport at a food court. Next we are honored to have mr. Michael phelps, hes the most decorated olympian of all time, 28 medals and three during the course of five games. Hes been an advocate for clean sport. Nexttiegert. With 15 years working usada in various leadership roles, we works closely to carry out the Organizations Mission of preserving the integrity of competition and inspiring u. S. Athletes. And welcome rob keilar, mr. Keilar comes to with almost two decades of experience working in the antidoping field for ethics and sports. Mr. Keilar is responsible for the oversight of all u. S. National antidoping organizations as well as global anti doping initiatives, lastly we welcome dr. Richard budget for the International Olympic committee. Dr. Budget is responsible for ensuring that the organizing committees of each addition of the Olympic Games deliver excellent antidoping working closely with the antidoping committees. Youre all aware that this committee is holding an investigative hearing and when doing so has had the practice of taking testimony under oath. Do any of you object to giving testimony under oath . Seeing no objection, under the rules of the house and committee you are entitled to be advised by counsel, do any of you to be advised by counsel . Seeing none please rise and ill swear you in. Do you swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, thank you. All the witnesses answered in the fimaffirmative. Call upon to give a five minute statement. This timer is not like in the game so nothing bad is going to happen if it turns red on you, mr. Nelson. Good morning and thank you, mr. Chairman and members of this committee for hosting this event and hopefully supporting clean sport. As a nineyearold i remember watching athletes like mary lou retin in the Olympic Games and inspired me for what it would be like competing in a ceremony, i competed as a shot putter that full ti fulfilled the dream for four more years. The 2004 shot put was for 58 of 60 throws i led that competition on the 59th throw the athlete from the ukraine tied my best mark. As the leader going into the final rounlds i had the bridgepe of taking the final throw. I never imagined it could be like this, but these are the moments that make the olympics great and can remember everybody about that moment, the faces in the crowd, the heat, the sun baking my skin, and mixture of cheers and boos for an american athlete as he was competing for a gold medal. These are the moments that change the trajectory of your life and make it worthwhile. The world went quiet. Felt the coolness of the shot put touch farther than any other throw of the day. I raised my hands in sure victory, realizing that i had just won the olympic gold medal, only to look left and see the red flag raise indicating i fouled. I saw as another athlete started his victory lap, and listened as they played another National Anthem and raised another flag, celebrating him. And in his honor. For eight years i lived with that result, eight years later i received a phone call from a reporter informing me that five athletes tested positive in a retroactive drug testing from samples from 2004. The last eight years of my life had apparently been based on a falsehood. A month later the same reporter called me to inform me the ioc was meeting that day to discuss whether or not to vacate his position or reallocate the medals. While on that call, the news hit the wires and the reporter informed me i was now the olympic gold medalist. A year later i picked up my medal in the food court at the atlanta airport, came with a side of fries and a free toy, dont worry about it. It was an afterthought. An official who could swing through atlanta on his way home. Nine years after the moment had passed, the color and timing of a medal matter, folks. Silver does not hold the same value and gold loses its shine over time. There is no small bit of irony of me winning a medal in this fashion. As an athlete, i rejected the notion you needed drugs to compete. I was vocal about clean sport and often criticized by competitors or peers for my position. I was often told not to comment on the current state of antidoping or doping in sports at major events, for fear it would be a distraction. Doping in sports is seen by some as a distraction for the athletes, an obstacle for the sport of the business of sport. It is a stain on an otherwise beautiful set of ideals that we know as the spirit of olympism. As a result, we have a system that is interested in seeing progress, but not truly committed to achieving the outcome. My story illustrates only part of the damage caused by doping in sport, but im not here to invoke sympathy, sympathy is a thought, an emotion devoid of action, im here today to ask you all to give medal to give meaning to my medal. This medal here. Im here to ask for action on behalf of millions of dreamers like me who believe in fair play and aspire for gold medals to be won and celebrated in the moment after a clean and fair competition. Since 2012, ive become a student of International Sports organizations. Ive advocated for clean sports, spoken with athletes from around the world about this subject. Ive heard their voices, the voices of the Clean Athletes, they ask for more. But those voices continue to fall on deaf ears. So they resort to social media, they wag fingers. And they create a petition that has already garnered almost 500 athlete signatures in support of structural reform. Athletes want action. Not words. Structural reform is only part of the solution, i cannot change a culture strictly by changing policy. You have to engage the athletes. So i ask as an athlete, olympic gold medalist, and someone personally and financially impacted by doping and sport, that you consider Clean Athlete as a shared owner in this all important fight. We will stand with you as a partner if you empower us to do so. Partner. The time of the moment is now. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Phelps, youre recognized for five minutes. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, good morning. My name is Michael Phelps. Im a retired professional swimmer and an olympian. I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear here before you today. It is a privilege to be here. To share my thoughts and perspective on the issue of clean sport, which is important to so many athletes and a sport in general. I competed internationally for over 15 years and had the tremendous honor to represent the United States in five Olympic Games and six World Championships. Without question, many of my proudest moments have been representing my country in International Competition. There is no greater feeling than standing on top of the podium, watching the stars and stripes rise, as the National Anthem plays. The rio olympics were special for me because it gave me the opportunity to end my career on my terms. To do it with my wife nicole and son boomer watching. It is also unique because of increased doping concerns. I watched how this affected my teammates and fellow competitors. We all felt frustration. Looking back over my career, and knowing how difficult it is to get to the highest levels of sport, i cant help but wonder how the next generation of athletes will be able to do it, this uncertainty continues. As a child, i found school difficult, i had adhd, which probably contributed to my restlessness. Ill never forget being told by one of my teachers that i never would amount to anything. It was swimming that enabled me to see past the challenges and not be defined by them. My mom put my sisters and me in the pool so we would be water safe. At first, like many children, i was afraid to put my head under the water. By overcoming that fear, i got my first taste of selfconfidence. As it turned out, i was pretty good in the water and i quickly realized the harder i worked, the quicker i improved. I found a focus and a purpose i had never felt before. I would set goals for myself and worked like crazy until i accomplished them. Dreams would pop into my head when i got into the pool. I would dream about becoming a gold medalist, world record holder, i wanted to be the best. I talked with my coach so we could come up with a plan, not just for what i was doing in the pool, but also how i could better myself away from the pool. I made up my mind to do everything i could to make my dream a reality. In school, i had friends, but i wasnt that social. I focused on swimming. At times i was made fun of for what i was doing because it was different. I was in love with challenging myself to become the best athlete that i could be. I felt that every single day was an opportunity for me to do Something Special when i went to the pool. I always felt that the kids who worked the hardest got the best results. Thats why i pushed myself as hard as i could. Over five year period, i trained every single day without a day off. I figured by training on holidays i would be able to get that extra edge. As a part of my hard work and as my hard work and sacrifice began to pay off, my confidence grew and i began to feel if i could dream something, and gave everything i had, that anything was possible. The strength of that belief drove me to set goals that others might have thought were unrealistic. Thats one amazing thing about competitive sport. It demands that you believe in yourself. This isnt always easy. There were so many times i could have quit and walked away. Sticking with it required me to dig deep, especially knowing that after all the work and sacrifice, success might be determined by just. 01. In those critical moments that you really test your commitment, and that can ultimately define your career, you need to believe that if you push on, youll get the opportunity to measure yourself, your preparation, your desire, your talent, against others who have prepared themselves in the same exact way. Throughout my career, ive thought that some athletes were cheating. And in some cases those suspicions were confirmed. Giving all the testing i and so many others have been through, i have a hard time understanding this. In addition to the test and competitions, i had to notify usada where i was every day. So they would be able to conduct random tests during outside of outside of competition. This whole process takes a toll. But it is absolutely worth it to keep the sport clean and fair. I cant describe how frustrating it is to see other athletes break through performance barrier and all realistic time frames knowing what i had to do to go through that. I watched how this affected my teammates as well. Even the suspicion of doping is disillusioning for Clean Athletes. To believe in yourself through sport, you need to be able to believe in the system that safeguards clean sport and fair play. All athletes must be held to the same standards which need to be implemented and enforced with consistency and independence. For years now, i worked closely with kids, most of these kids arent swimmers, but eager to sit down and talk with me and always full of questions. It is when i talk about being a kid like them, and how this all started with a dream, you see their eyes light up. We talk about how i did it and i tell them they can do it too. Look into a childs eyes and tell them if they dare to dream, and do the work, they can succeed. The power to believe in yourself and inspire others through sport depends upon fair play. Now that im retired, im frequently asked if i think anybody will ever win more medals than me in my lifetime. My answer to that question is i hope so. I would like to think there is some little boy or girl out there now with an even bigger dream, and Even Stronger drive, to work harder than i ever did to do something that has never been done before. For that to happen, he or she must believe they will get a fair opportunity to compete. If we allow our confidence in fair play to erode, we will undermine the power of sport, and the goals and dreams of future generations. The time to act is now. We must do what is necessary to ensure the system is fair and reliable so we all can believe in it. Thank you, mr. Chairman and members of the committee. We rarely have applause after testimony, so i thank you both of you. Mr. Tygart, recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member and other members of the committee, good morning. Im Travis Tygart from the u. S. Antidoping agency and really appreciate the invitation to be here today. To discuss this very important topic. We find ourselves at a critical juncture for the soul of sport. Two principles at the very heart of why we play sports, hanging in the balance. You just heard powerful testimony from adam nelson and Michael Phelps on why this matters. We view Clean Athletes and their powerful stories as our guiding light. Our north star. Their stories give us hope, they provide us the fuel to continue to advocate for their right to clean and fair competition. In order to do this, today, i think we must understand how and why the system is under threat. There is no timelier example than uncovering of russias widespread state supported doping system. Over a thousand russian athletes have been implicated in this drug program, proven to have been orchestrated by russian officials. At least two Olympic Games with were corrupted. At the rio games, scores of russian athletes competed despite not being subject to credible antidoping programs. When the moment came despite evidence from athletes around the world, the ioc chose to welcome the russian Olympic Committee to rio and did not enforce any meaningful sanctions against the russian Olympic Committee. The ioc missed or ignored the defining moment to confront in the clearest way possible this win at all costs culture of doping and global sport. It was a chance to draw an unambiguous line in the sand to stand up for Clean Athletes of the world. Despite this, however, two Silver Linings have emerged. The first, more than ever before as youve heard today, athletes are mobilizing. Voicing their opinions and fighting more than ever for a level Playing Field and second, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to zrult disrupt positions for the good of sport to make sure that the kind of state supported doping is never allowed to rear its ugly head again. To get there, the road to reform starts and ends with independence. We have long advocated in front of this congress for a clear separation between those who promote sport and those who police sport. Because to do so otherwise is to have the fox guarding the hen house, you cannot both promote and police your own sport. We along with 22 antidoping agencies support a strong and independent w independe independent wada but we also agree that wada needs reform to become a truly independent Global Regulator, not merely the Sport Service organization that many hope it remains. The good news, mr. Chairman, is that wadas conflicted governance model could be easily solved by removing sport members from the board. Lets take the blindfolds and handcuffs off and let them do the job that Clean Athletes deserve. I read the testimony of richard and rob prior to coming today. Let me say we know both of them well and have Great Respect on a personal level for their efforts to fight within the system for change. But unfortunately, today, today, they are simply to some extent, just carrying out the instructions from their sport bosses, who arent here, unfortunately. But in regard to their position, we agree with much of it. In fact, thats why National Antidoping agencies including us here in the u. S. Have implemented many of the same strategies years ago, but unfortunately, theyre silent on the crux of the real reform solution, which is to remove the fox from guarding the hen house. We hear that a lot. Fox and the hen house. Youll see quite clearly that while the ioc and wada may be advocating to dee ing ting to d and educate the fox and even equip the fox with the appropriate resources so do the job, its still the fox. There is still a conflict of interest and Clean Athletes arn the world are still being let down by sports control of these critical antidoping functions. Whats so frustrating for us and you heard the athletes frustration and the athletes we serve is that the solutions are relatively easy, but the determination to implement them is lacking. But we remain optimistic. Antidoping agencies from around the world have come together, put forth the copenhagen reform declaration, the number one remove sports control of antidoping. Number two, strengthen wada through improved independence and increased investment. Number three, increase and make clear wadas ability to investigate, monitor, compliance and impose sanctions. Number four, provide meaningful athletes who have been robbed the recognition they deserve. If we are involved with adams situation, not a chance that medal gets handed to him in a food court. With sport, it is an obstacle. They dont want to care about it. Let it be done right and lets have swift reallocation of any medals that have been stolen. Five, increase support for whistleblowers around the world. Mr. Chairman, and those of you on the committee, who value this clean sport, this is our moment. Importantly this is not just about olympic athletes, but about every child on the playground who has a dream. And asks themselves, what does it take to have this dream come true . The truth is, if we dont push, if we dont win, we will likely find ourselves right back in the same position, years from now, staring at another state supported doping system in the face that abused its own athletes that robbed other athletes from around the world, and well all be wondering why we didnt do more. Thank y thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Tygart. Thank you, mr. Chairman, members of the committee. My name is rob koehler. First of all, thank you for inviting me to testify today about antidoping issues in sport. An issue that i, in my organization, are passionate about. The World Antidoping Agency was established in 1999 to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against doping in sport. Wada is an independent Agency Responsible for the development and implementation of the world antidoping code. The code harmonizes antidoping policies in all sports and all countries. Wada both oversees and works with cooperation and a network of stake holders in governments and in Sports Movements. Each as its own specific roles and responsibility. Wadas funded by the Sports Movement and the governments of the world. We heard today that the United States is the Largest National contributor to wada who funds wada on an annual basis at 2. 15 million over 27. 5 million annual budget. Wada has come a long way in 18 years on a very modest resources. The world antidoping code is in its third iteration. The code has introduced consistencies to the antidoping rules and processes, where previously there was disparity. One should not look past the importance of consistent rules and procedures as without them antidoping efforts are merely unstructured aspirations. Wada has also introduced a u. N. Treaty called the Unesco International convention against doping in sport. This treaty was ratified in record time by 183 states of 195. Relationships are also crucial as a small organization. For example, weve established lasting relationships with world customs organizations and our relationships with the pharmaceutical companies such as pfizer, roche, glaxosmithkline are very helpful in terms of our research initiatives. While wada has come a long way in its inception, the past two years have placed the agency in unchartered waters. The agency and the broader antidoping community. The widespread antidoping or doping conspiracy in russia as described in the panel report and subsequent Mclaren Report funded and sponsored by wada forced a global period of reflection on how better to fight doping in sport. Wada has listened to a series of proposals made by a stake holders in the wake of the russian doping conspiracy. Wadas board, as you know, is compromised of representatives from the sport movement, and from governments. Our board in its november meeting took action on a set of recommendations that we believe will both enhance wadas role and capacity to help foster clean sport and to help protect the rights of Clean Athletes worldwide. Were moving forward in three main priorities. One, we recognize the need to enhance wadas investigations and intelligence gathering capacity. This work has already begun. With the arrival of our new chief investigative officer, whose team will and is entirely independent from wadas management. Second, wadas new whistleblower policy, we named it speak up. It has been approved and will be launched in the coming days. As the last couple of years have shown, informants and whistleblowers are invaluable to the fight against doping in sport. Third, and perhaps the most important, is wadas new compliance monitoring which will be the most thorough review of our stake holders antidoping programs. That has ever taken place in the antidoping movement. It will raise the standards of the entire sport, clean sport community. We recognize, however, that this Compliance Monitoring Program will only be effective if supported by meaningful, predictable, and proportionate sanctions. For those organizations that subvert antidoping rules. Our Foundation Board endorsed principled, new, graded sanction framework moving forward to ensure that people are made accountable for making mistakes. Wada is focused on these three priorities, we are all conscious that these new strategic undertakings will require a significant level of funding if we are to realize our mission to protect the Clean Athlete. We will present to our board a clean slate draft of our 2018 budget to reflect this new level of work. Simply put, to increase our capacity, and the broader antidoping community will need additional funding from both sport and government to be more successful. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Dr. Budgett, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you members of the subcommittee. My name is richard budgett, the medical and scientific director of the ioc. Im pleased to have the opportunity to present to you on behalf of the ioc on strengthening the interNational Antidoping system. Clearly the cooperation between sport and government is extremely important. The protection of Clean Athletes has been an absolute priority for the ioc. Primarily, we are responsible for antidoping at the games, but our responsibility is broader than that across the whole olympic family. And perhaps the most important thing the ioc ever did in the field of antidoping was to found wada in 1999. For the first two years it was totally funded by the ioc and then as you heard, it became a partnership 50 50 between government and sport. And now the ioc fund wada to the tune of 14 million a year and the Sporting Community as a whole spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on antidoping. Now, more recently with agenda 2020, the importance of protecting the Clean Athlete was really put central within the ioc strategy. And since then, there have been two olympic summits which have called for increase in independence, increase harmonization and increase transparency. Now, my own personal and professional commitment to this began in 1984, when as a rowing athlete i won olympic gold medal in los angeles. Since then, ive been a sport medicine doctor and looked after olympic athletes all around the world for more than 25 years. And thats given me a passionate commitment that we have to do everything we possibly can to ensure that olympic athletes, like the two fantastic olympic athletes we have with us today can be as sure as competing on Playing Field. Now, in 2012, i became chief medical officer for the london olympics, and then since 2012 ive been the ioc medical and scientific director responsible for the prevention of injuries and illness in athletes, for Education Research and, of course, for antidoping, which, of course, is a threat to health. As we heard, there is a small Silver Lining in the recent scandals, which is that there is an acceptance among the antidoping community that we have to strengthen the world antidoping system. And i really appreciate you calling this hearing and giving the platform for us to make changes. And through the support of wada, from the u. S. For the iocs part, we strongly support the regulatory role of wada, standards, compliance you heard, assessment of antidoping organizations. But this will only succeed if it is seen as fair. So there must be respect for individual justice and we mustnt sanction or punish athletes for the failure of others. As part of governance, we the ioc have called for leaders of wada to be independent, so were in agreement on that, independent from sport and government. And we have called for further independence through the whole system, separating legislation from policy, policing and from sanctioning. So you dont have the same body setting the rules, enforcing the rules and determining the punishment. In order to avoid conflict of interest or any perception of conflict of interest, the ioc have called for antidoping testing to be independent all around the world. And as a result, the independent Testing Authority could do everything from the testing and analysis through to the storing of samples for up to ten years and reanalysis through to the prosecution of cases in the same way as the ioc did in rio where it made that independent from the ioc through a cast arbitration panel. This way with an independent Testing Authority, athletes can be confident that their peers throughout the world are also being tested to a similar standard. As regards to the Mclaren Report, this was a shocking institutional conspiracy. The ioc have taken extremely seriously as you heard there were two commissions, an Inquiry Commission under samuel schmid, past president of switzerland, looking at the whole, and a commission under Dennis Oswald looking at individual cases. As professor mclaren acknowledged, there are challenges there because the evidence he gathered is not designed to be used to prosecute individual cases. But we are working hard with further forensic analysis, further reanalysis, and gathering of evidence so these cases can be pursued with the cooperation of wada, of the independent person and his team and also international federations. These commissions are ongoing and should finish in time for the pyeongchang games, they must finish by then. Ultimately, the goal of the ioc is the protection of the Clean Athlete. And we are fully determined to work with all those involved in this fight as wada, international federations, the athletes and entourage and with governments. So thank you for this opportunity to address you and i am ready to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you to all of our witnesses today. Ill recognize myself for five minutes of questions. So recently nearly two dozen interNational Antidoping agencies voiced support for a number of reforms they believe are necessary to strengthen interNational Antidoping oversight enforcement. Central to these reforms is the removal of Sports Organizations from the governance of antidoping organizations including wada. This would eliminate what many of you view as a glaring conflict of interest in mr. Tygarts words, the fox guarding the hen house. Based on your experience of wada, would the removal of Sports Organizations from your government structure improve your independence and operations . Thank you, mr. Chair. I think the first thing i want to draw back is we hear the word wada is broken. Wada needs to be fixed. Were here today for the simple reason that wada did a lot to expose doping in russia, and it brought to the forefront major issues. But would removal of Sports Organizations from your government structure improve your independence and operations . Would it improve it . Im not sure if it would improve it. There is a process going on now where were doing a complete governance review on how to strengthen the organization. And we are open to any suggestions on the way forward. Dr. Budgett, do you, and the ioc support this type of reform . Yes, we do support this reform. And taking steps to invoke this change . Yes. So, and, in fact, wada, to be honest have taken steps to invoke that change with this governments review, which has independent experts as well as representatives from sport and from government to look at the total governance of wada and particularly the executive board should be independent of both sport and government. Mr. Tygart, do you have anything to add to those comments . I would just say if in fact thats now the position, thats wonderful. Well see if it happens. We had two plus years for that move to be made and athletes are still waiting for some change and that sport today, frankly, could remove themselves from the governance of wada. But we havent seen it. We have heard discussion of separation of powers and we certainly agree with that basic principle, and you can have sport involved in the legislative branch, but when it comes time to most important functions to protecting Clean Athletes is to have an executive function that is free of the fox attempting to guard itself and not conflicted by that. And we have yet to have a definitive statement or position by the ioc to remove themselves from that. Thank you. So if thats the position, we agree and were thrilled if thats now the position. Mr. Phelps, in your testimony, you write that important quote, quote, to believe in yourself through clean sport, you need to be able to believe in a system that safeguards clean sport and fair play, all athletes must be held to the same standards which need to be implemented and enforced with consistency and independence. Given the recent events, what effect does a doping scheme of this magnitude have upon you as an athlete . I mean, one of the kind of craziest things and biggest things that come to my mind when i think of International Sports is, and ive said this to travis, i dont believe that i have stood up on international at an International Competition and the rest of the field has been clean. I dont believe that. I dont think ive ever felt that. And i know that when i do stand up in the u. S. , i know were all clean, because were going through the same thing. Were going through the whereabouts, were going through the out of competition tests, were doing all of that stuff. So i think for me, in terms of internationally, i think there has to be something done, like i said, has to be done now. And mr. Nelson, how about you . What effect does this have on our youth, especially those that also have dreams about being the best in competing at olympic level. This notion of trust is really important. As athletes, we trust that these organizations that are looking out for our best interests, our competitive interests, our integrity, are doing their jobs to the best of their abilities and being open and honest and transparent with how things are going. Last year, 2015, i think there was a major violation in that trust. And things that we used to as athletes maybe not pay as close attention to or say someone else is looking after it, now i think we see a change in the culture of athletes that says theyre not doing their job appropriately yet. We have to do it for them. And i think that thats a big shift in the culture of athletics going on right now. Thank you. Im just going to recognize mr. Getno for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Tygart, i found your written and also your oral testimony to be refreshingly honest. I want to talk about a few of the findings that you made. You referred in your written testimony to the russian cheating scheme as shockingly pervasive and noted that it, quote, spread across more than 30 sports from at least 2011 to 2015. Is that correct . Yes, maam. You also said, quote, russias methods of cheating went from abhorrent to something out of a spy novel, samples passed through walls, government Intelligence Officers mailed dna in female samples, and emails to the russian minister of sport looking for guidance on which doped athletes to protect and which to satisfy. Is that correct . Yes, maam. Now, also in your testimony, you described this as a, quote, nightmare realized and you point out that whistleblowers and journalists played a major role in unearthing this scheme. Mr. Tygart, some of these whistle blowers feared for their own safety, is that correct . Yes. In fact, some of those folks are still in hiding in the United States. Is that right . Thats right. Also, wadas independent investigation determined that the russian Security Service also known as the fsb took part in this cheating scheme. Is that correct . Thats right. Now, wadas independent investigation found that over 1,000 russian athletes might have benefited from the russian doping scheme. Is that correct . Yes, it is. And you also said in your testimony that, quote, despite mountains of evidence, the ioc chose not to stand up for Clean Athletes and against institutionalized doping. You said that the iocs decision not to ban russia was, quote, a defining moment. And, quote, the ioc failed to lead. Finally, you said, history will not judge the iocs decision kindly. Is that an accurate it is. So i want to ask you, mr. Tygart, what should the ioc and the antidoping community be doing now to address the findings of wadas independent investigation . I think outside of the reform proposals that we have put forward which we think are critically important in the 22 plus nados from around the world agree, the Silver Bullet if there is one to curing this is removing the fox from guarding the hen house. While it wasnt in the iocs prepared remarks that were submitted yesterday, i think i heard that that is something theyre prepared to do, remove sport leaders from the wada governance board and if thats the case, that goes a long way in solving the concerns. They also have to finish the investigation and ensure that the individual cases are followed up on and any athletes from around the world that were robbed get their rightful place on the podium and given a meaningful celebration. And just to ask, are you familiar with this letter that the director general of the ioc sent on february 23rd, 2017 . I am. And in that letter, he says the schmid commission, which has to address the substantial allegations about the potential systematic manipulation of the antidoping samples is continuing its work and then says theyre talking about a, quote, statesponsored system, the final full report in december, they talked about an institutional conspiracy and they said now theyre going to have to, quote, consider what this change means and what individuals organizations or government authorities may have been involved. Do you have any idea what theyre talking about there . Im not exactly sure. Because this is what im concerned about. You know, this committee, we did an investigation many years ago around the Salt Lake City olympics and this is the same kind of gobbly gook we got then. Theyre looking at angels dancing on the head of a pin. Dont even know what theyre talking about. Youre saying you deont either im not sure. I want to ask you, mr. Phelps, and you, mr. Nelson, briefly what structural changes need to be made to the global antidoping system to prevent this kind of activity from happening again . For me, i can say from spending and working a lot of time with usada, look at the independence they have. Thats something so powerful that us as american athletes know were doing the right thing and theyre doing the right thing. If you could change Something Like that, it would be great. Mr. Nelson . The first change has to be holding all the different stake holders in this mess to the same level of accountability that they hold the athletes to. If you strictly enforce the rules for compliance at a National Level or federation level, youll see people hop in line very quickly because they will lose the opportunity to compete and their athletes will lose the opportunity to compete. The second thing is also transparency in reporting. As an athlete, ive always struggled to figure out how well this group is doing because the information is not necessarily readily available there has been some steps in the last few years to help with that. But the number of adverse findings given the number of samples that are collected each year suggest that either the problem is not as pervasive as they think or that the testing isnt quite there yet. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, i would ask unanimous consent to put this february 23rd letter from the ioc into the record. Without objection. Now recognize mr. Walden for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of our witnesses. Your testimony is most helpful in our work. I want to ask the olympians again to make this clear, you dont think youve ever competed in a clean olympics, is that right . Internationally, whether it is World Championships or the Olympic Games, i dont feel that, no. Mr. Nelson . No. Okay. Now, mr. Budgett, dr. Budgett, i have a question for you, i want to clarify to make sure we all heard this the same way that your organization now would support removing sport leaders from the wada board . Is that true . Thats absolutely correct. Obviously within a structure of governance that will be developed through this government working part of wada put together. Within the year. Within the year. Okay. So i want to go back. Here is why i think a lot of us are concerned. There are whistleblowers as far back as 2010 who probably risk more than just their ability to compete to come forward and share with the organization what was going on. And it strikes me that it wasnt until there were Investigative Press reports that anything happened. So the question is, do you have a process that we can trust that whistleblowers who take great risk could trust to come forward and actually have some action taken on what they share because clearly people are at great risk when they come forward and theyre not going to do it if they think theyre going to get blown off. And so you got to convince us that something is going to really change here. Yes, that is why wada is in place. So i would refer that question to my colleague on my right. But just to reiterate that the ioc is in the process of removing the fox from the hen house, and i think it is a good analogy, so were actually in the process, relinquishing all control over antidoping. And going to pass it to the independent testing because sources matter. Sources matter. It is how organizations of the press can do their job effectively. But if theyre ignored, they go away. And we lose out. Mr. Koehler . Go ahead. Thank you. The it is so important to protect whistle blowers. It is the right time to recognize two very brave whistleblowers, the stepanovs who came forward in 2010. We didnt have the power to investigate it, but what i can tell you during that time is that when they came forward, our ultimate goal was to protect their safety. We had information from them that came from the about corruption, from russia about corruption, we didnt know who to hand it to. So we were in a difficult position and we had no power to investigate. No question when they came forward. So who had the power to investigate . Nobody. Except the national federations, so the government, or the International Athletics association. It wasnt until 2015 that the code changed and gave us the power to investigate. What a broken system. What a broken system. Up to that point. How else can you look at this . Youve got these new reports, had the thank you god for the investigative journalists that blew the doors open on this. Now you have the reports, now youre going to give us confidence that youre going to reorganize this operation, and get to the point where we dont have conflicts of interest, and where our athletes, especially u. S. Athletes that play by the rules can compete against other athletes that play by the rules, right . I can tell you categorically that any whistleblower that comes forward to this day as of 2015, our number one priority is to protect them, protect their rights, even when we didnt have the investigative power, we took it upon ourselves to protect the stepanovs to make sure they were safe. Are you aware of any whistle blowers that came forth and made additional allegations . We are, yes. Are those allegations being investigated in any manner or do you still lack that authority . Absolutely. Theyre all being investigated. So what happens . Once you complete your investigation, who rules walk me through that part. Anytime there is a whistleblower that comes forward, our investigative team, which, again, is going to be six people, not nearly enough for global organization, they have an independent role to bring forward and to research and investigate antidoping rule violations. Should they have evidence, then they will bring it forward to the wada management and the wada committees and to the wada Foundation Board to report and to determine what sanctions should be required. Mr. Tygart is shaking his head. Im sorry. Go ahead. I just think there is a really important point here and it is what i said in my oral testimony about deputizing the fox. If theyre testing and dr. Budgett talked about removing sport from the wada governance board and not just from a testing organization, that is a critical point because if you continue to have sport overseeing investigations, determining compliance, acting at a Global Regulator of itself, it is no different than the current status quo, the fox guarding the hen house. And so we have to it would be great to have a definitive conclusion if the iocs position today is at the wada governance level, the Global Regulator, they are going to remove themselves from that board, which they could do today. It doesnt take another summit to do that. They could do it today. All right, my time has expired. Thank you to our witnesses. Now, recognize mr. Pallone for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wanted to discuss the role of the athletes in addressing the challenges we face with doping. And mr. Tygart, in an article you wrote called the athletes voice, a force for change, you said at the end of the day it is the athletes not the suits who billions of people around the world tune in to watch. It is the athletes who leave us holding our breath. Without them, there is no sport. Without them, there is no true and lasting change. You say in your testimony that now more than ever athletes are mobilizing and voicing their opinions. My question is what role should athletes play in terms of policing their own sports, specifically, and the antidoping structure more broadly . Well, it starts with the athletes. They own the culture of sport. And it is wonderful. It is sad it took this scandal to mobilize them in the way that it has. But it is wonderful that theyre now mobilizing and realizing how important this right is to them. But they also are to have confidence in the system, should have a clear voice in the system, but just like the Sports Organizations, they cant play a role as active athletes in testing themselves. That would be like the fox guarding the hen house. There has to be an independent organization that does it on behalf of those athletes, but them protecting that field that they exist in is absolutely critical. And we wont ultimately be successful without their buyinto the program, faith and trust in the system and willingness to do Everything Possible to win, but do it by playing by the rules. Thanks. Im going to ask mr. Phelps the same question what is the role that athletes should be playing in terms of ensuring their sports are free from doping . For me, as an athlete, i have always made sure that i take care of myself and prepare myself the best way possible. Thats what ive always done. Never voiced opinions. Ive always kept in stayed in my lane so to say, all the times. Because for me it takes away what im doing. In trying to accomplish. And i think thats one thing for me i never did, never voiced opinions, really before this year. And, you know, obviously as an athlete has been around for a couple of the olympics and seeing a lot of things happen, it gets frustrating and we want to be for me, i would like to stand up on the block and International Competition and know that the other seven competers that im racing against prepared just like i did. They went through the exact same hard work i did. They dedicated themselves to doing what nobody has done before, or accomplishing their goal. And that would be a dream for me. And i hope to be able to see that one day. Thanks. Mr. Nelson, should athletes be more vocal Going Forward and demand reform so we can better ensure the systems in place will guarantee clean play . Yes, i believe they should be more vocal. More than just using their words. I think they need to be integrated into the solution as well. Right now the way athletes voices are integrated into the solution of olympic sports is through the internal athletes advisory committees. They very rarely have the power to influence to do anything other than influence policy with people coming to them by asking questions. It is a reactive force, not a proactive force. With this particular issue considering that it invades on so many athletes that invades on the privacy of so many athletes, it is a huge burden these athletes bear, we accept this burden with open arms. But we have no input into it. If you are about Building Trust with athletes and changing the culture, you have to find a way to insert their voice into the leadership and the actual structure of the solution. Thanks. Im going to go back to mr. Tygart for one more question. Given the findings of wadas independent investigation regarding widespread cheating, it was my understanding that the athletes were prepared to boycott the international bobsled and skeleton championships that were set to take place in sochi this month. In your testimony, you state that athletes around the world have taken up this cause. What can you tell us about the potential athlete boycott of that event . Are we going to see more instances of that where athletes put their feet down and, you know, participate in boycotts . I hope not. And i say that because i know and ive talked to athletes about that very issue and talked with many of those bobsled athletes about it. Thats an untenable position to put an athlete, that your Sports Organization is not going to enforce the decision it made to bar events from russia, youre concerned about your own sample security and the testing regime to go to russia, or you decide to boycott, thats not fair to those athletes and we should not put agelets in those positions to even have to make that decision and we dont have to because sport and the antidoping system can determine to enforce the decisions that have been made, not have events in russia until they clean up their act, become wada code compliant and then alleviate that concern from athletes minds. I dont for a second hope that any athletes have to boycott. That said, theyre frustrated. Thats a good example when theyre willing to even consider that option that theyre frustrated and want change and want change now. Thank you. Im out of time. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Recognize the vice chairman of the subcommittee, mr. Griffith, of virginia, for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And thank all of you for being here. I know that the folks assembled here today are the good guys, were just trying to figure out how to get it where its right. And so with that being said, i think im hear something meeting of the minds going on, so dr. Budgett, am i hearing you say that the ioc is prepared to not only relinquish the governance board, direct contact with the governance board, but also investigations in testing or have i gone abridge too far . Youre correct about the investigation testing and that is something the ioc, have called for since the olympic summit and it is very important. We certainly want to do it for sport and i think actually there is a conflict of interest with government as well because actually thats all that is happening in russia. We need to look across the whole of antidoping. When it comes to the governance of wada, that has to go through due process. And so i dont know exactly what structure will come out, what representation will be from sport, whether minority representation, sum link, but that is for the people in charge of governance to sort out. But certainly on the actual testing, and the whole structure around that, that will be completely independent. And the governance board is in question, but you anticipate some reforms before the end of this year . I certainly hope so. The first meeting is in a week or so. All right. I appreciate that. Let me ask this question, as long as ive got you. It may be what mr. Koehler touched on earlier, mr. Nelson showed us his medal earlier and that was really a special moment. But a food court in atlanta is not appropriate. I would just say, as somebody who tries to problem solve and lloyd of lot of us do that, why not we then any medals given late because somebody cheated at the opening ceremonies of the next olympics for that particular sport, seems to me that would make mr. Nelsons experience much more special. Wanted to ask you if you thought that was good. Do you think that sounds look a better way than getting it with a happy meal . It was a really cool toy. Yes, i think thats a big step forward and would certainly recognize the issue and not sort of try to sweep it under the rug, which i think is important as well. Yeah. Mr. Phelps, i think the entire American Swimming Team brought this up, maybe accidentally, but with lilly king and others talking about this openly at the olympics last summer, it became an issue that most americans are now aware of and probably millions more around the world. I appreciate you all doing that. And appreciate you being here today and taking your time to join us. Is there anything you want to touch on that you havent had an opportunity to speak on thus far . Not today. I will say i agree with what youre say about going to the next olympics. As i said in my testimony, there is Nothing Better than watching your flag rise, listening to the National Anthem. For me, thats one of the greatest thins ill miss the most. And to be able to represent your country and have that moment, that special moment, i feel he deserves that. And i completely agree. I will take you back in time a little bit. How long did it take you when you started complaining about the long swimming suits before the ioc changed those . We have been working on drugs for 30, 40 years. Didnt it only take the swimming suits got changed in a couple of years . It wasnt long. And i think they the larger suits probably came out 07ish. And by World Championships of 09, that was the last chance that anyone had the opportunity to swim in them. Like i said then, that took away from the actual sport. That wasnt the sport. It was a manufacturer trying to come up with a suit that they think is the fastest and some were different than others and you can go into a lot of different technical parts there, but and quickly we got that removed. So hopefully we can get this resolved as well. And i hope so too. Mr. Tygart, i know youve indicated some frustration, about what youre hearing today. Does that give you some hope we are on the right path to getting this situation there is always going to be cheaters, but getting to the point where were actually governing . Our position along with 22 other National Antidoping organizations around the world is crystal clear, that we have to remove the fox from the governance, so if wadas governing board still determines the consequence, for example, of an investigation, and still determines what testing plans are acceptable, still is responsible ultimately for determining who is in compliance with the rule, who is not, no different than what we currently have. And so were not in agreement with that and well continue to push, because we recognize the solution is to remove the fox from guarding the hen house because you cant promote and police. And athletes cant believe in a system when sports still determines what is in is best interest and controls the material aspects of antidoping. And just quickly, going back to mr. Nelsons situation, do dont you think we can do this faster than eight years . We should prevent them from coming to begin with. In rio, there were 1913 athletes out of 11,000 athletes in rio from ten high risk sports that had no tests of record prior to the rio games. Ten high risk sports. How unacceptable is that . Thats what happens when sport and the iocs responsibility for the games, thats what happens when sport attempts to protect it and police itself and the announcements following that report was that the integrity of the games was upheld. Im not sure it was. But at the end of the day, we need to stop that from happening to ensure we prevent dopers from going to the games to begin with. My time is up. I yield back. What did we say the number was for six months leading into the games . That i was tested . Bakers dozen. Bakers dozen. Over 1900 athletes in the top ten sports that werent tested. You were tested a dozen times . 13, yeah. Bakers dozen. Oh. Hes not counting. Miss schakowsky recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I really want to thank the witnesses and actually the athletes. I find so shocking that you both said that in the Olympic Games, an International Competition, you cant feel confident that you dont feel confident that someone hasnt been doped. And so i am hopeful that in this very bipartisan hearing today, that were having, that were going to be able to contribute to alleviating that lack of confidence so that when the kids that you work with now have their dreams that they can believe and i want to thank you too, mr. Tygart, and hopefully all of you for restoring that confidence to americans. I did want to requote congresswoman degette, saying that despite mountains of evidence and vocal opposition from antidoping groups, the ioc chose not to stand up for Clean Athletes and against institutionalized doping. And that you pointed out that the ioc, quote, punted, unquote, the decision to the International Sports federations and missed an opportunity to stand for Clean Athletes and send a clear message. So how should the ioc at the time have held russia accountable for its deception as described in wadas independent investigation . And thank you for the question. And we were very clear along with 13 other National Antidoping organizations, literally from around the world who sent a letter to the ioc, after the Mclaren Report and the exposed russia institutionalized doping was established. And said, listen, you have to you cant reward the Olympic Committee who whose responsibility it is as a member of the ioc who was complicit in it, according to some of the evidence, as well as has responsibility in their own country to ensure nothing like that ever happens. This is the antithesis of the Olympic Movement and the values. So dont allow them to come. They have done it in other circumstances, not only doping, but apartheid, for example, wouldnt let the South African nc come because of the actions going on. They had the power to do it, they chose not to do it. Our recommendation was dont let the russian Olympic Committee there, but have a uniform and consistent application by individual athletes who might not have been part of the system if there are any and who werent tainted by that system. But dont just hand it off to 38 different sport federations who dont have the time, the money, the resources, the expertise in days before rio. It is a mess. So do you believe that russia has been sufficiently held accountable for this corruption . We dont. I understand that the ioc has formed these two committees to look further into the investigation. Do you have confidence in those two committees . Again, without beating my drum too much, its the fox guarding the hen house. You have a sport run investigation whos going to make determinations at the point in the ball game and its just, you cant have trust in the outcome of those investigations unfortunately because the perception is what we all know. That you cant both promote and police your sport, particularly on the heels of allowing the athletes to go and the russian Olympic Committee to go, so there is a selffulfilling prophesy, that you dont want to be successful in those cases to justify your decision to let them in to begin with. Just saying thats the perception out there that we hear from athletes all the time who are concerned about that. Based on what you heard today at this hearing, and if those promises are implemented, would you then have confidence . Still the governance piece is still troubling and will not allow it the full independence free from that promoting and policing aspect that it needs to regain the confidence in the way that it could. That model has worked in other parts of the country and theres no good reason not to. Other than to control the outcomes. Why wouldnt you let go of the governance if you know athletes will have more confidence in it. Antidoping agencies will have more confidence in it. The only reason is to you can control it. There is no other good reason. And all the fans and all the people who were inspired by it would have more confidence. How did the russian situation go undetected for so long . What failed . I disagree on the ability to investigate going back to 2010. Many of us believe they have the power to do it, but whats unquestioned is that they had the, they did have the clear powers to hold organizations compliant. And this issue of countries and sports, whether they were compliant with the rules or not, frequently came to their board. And it was determined they werent going to make decisions on compliance. And that is the fox saying were not going to hold ourselves accountable. Because of the bad pr that would result if we said these organizations arent accountable, so we have to remove that fox to ensure the authority they have clearly now to investigate, we think they had in the past and what they had in the past and clearly do today to have compliance is actually done in a way thats free of the sport influence and for the good of Clean Athletes and for no other reason. Thank you, i yield back. Ms. Brooks of indiana for five minutes. Thank you for being here and sharing with us, educating us on the challenges that you face. Besides removing the fox from governance of antidoping organizations, what are some of the other reforms that you believe are necessary that have been advocated by others to the authorities and to enhance maybe even their resources to investigate . I think its improved independence and transparency, board limits, clear process for how Board Members are appointed or voted. Of course, the increased investment. We think they have and have had the authority to investigate. If theres any question about that, make that absolutely clear. Actually, do the job of monitoring compliance and have a clear plan for how youre going to do that. And can you, do you believe then that based on those types of reform, it could actually address an issue as large nation state sponsored doping . I do. I think you can have the, it all came back to whistle blowers. The media put it out there. Blow. The media put it out there. If we had the same will and determination, free of any conflict not to do the right thing, the its not Holding Governments accountable. What its doing is investigating sport. And holding sport accountable. Ioc through the olympic charter can hold International Olympic committees responsible. That can be done in the process is done to make sure Clean Athletes around the the world happen. And these antidoping situations dont ever happen again. Can you please, if you would please respond to what mr. Tygerts suggestions are, particularly with respect to the view of its authority to hold nation states responsible and have you ever done so . Id like to clarify, that prior to 2015, wata did no have the powers to investigate. That didnt come to force until the antidoping code was established. With a revision. Out of curiosity, youve been in existence since 1999 . Thats correct. So how and why is it that you did not get Investigative Authority until 2015 . The first code came in force in 2003. There have been three since. The code is not watas code. The code is by stakeholder consultation and everybody feeds into it. It was an involving system. To be honest, the reason the investigation came in was we saw the power of the whistleblowers coming forward. When wata was formed in 1999, forgive me i dont know the history, it wasnt intended to be an Investigative Authority when it has to do with antidoping . Correct. So it wasnt until 03, the different codes to be, but then so what is it that besides educating and besides testing, what is it that you would attribute as the successes . What is it youve done . If you werent able to investigate until 2015. Prior to the code, an ath alito in russia and an athlete in the United States, could have different sanctions. Different sports had different sanctions. One could have two years and one could have four years. Different sports had different sanctions to we harmonize the process. How do you have 1900 athletes out of 11,000 not subject to doping testing at all . I fully agree with mr. Tygerts comment. This should not happen. This cannot happen. There needs to be a further investment in antidoping to make sure it doesnt happen. One thing i raised earlier was we are now moving into a system of noncompliance and compliance review. Theres a call to go in and make people accountable and if theyre not doing it we have them make a call on county trips on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Ry trips on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Iy trips on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Ey trips on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Sy trips on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Trips on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Cou on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Rip on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Cous on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. Ps on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. S on sports, deemed not doing the work to make them compliant. On sports, deemed not doing the work to m its time to change. Those countries that are not doing the amount of testing, they need to be held accountable. Would it be your request that maybe six investigators to investigate the world of athletes and what percentage is going toward investigations . Six is not enough, but were working on a very minimal budget. For the two reports, the independent reports weve covered, we spent over 2. 5 million on two report, so out of 27. 5 million budget, simply dont have enough to continue to react to the need of the athletes. Maybe the budget should be reallocated to increase the amount of funds on investigations relative to your other duties. With that, i yield back. Recognize miss castor for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you to the witnesses for being here. International sport, antidoping enforcement is flawed and its clear that the tools to enforce sanctions on athletes in countries who cheat have to be strengthened. Look no further than july 2016, the world antidoping Committee Recommended to the ioc that it ban russian athletes from the 2016 games and despite that, the ioc decided to allow russian athletes to participate in the rio games. If the Russian Sports federation carried out an analysis on their own and looked at the individuals antidoping records and they could, russia could approve them to participate, but then at the end of the year there were press reports, the acting director general of russias National Antidoping agency said no, actually, whats been going on in russia for a long time is an institutional conspiracy. Years worth of cheating schemes. While emphasizes that the governments top officials were not involved. But the New York Times reported a lab director tampered with urine samples at olympics and provided cocktails of performance enhancing drugs corrupting some of the worlds most prestigious competitions. Members of the federal Security Service, a successor to the russian kgb, broke into sample bottles Holding Urine and a deputy sports minister for years ordered coverups of top athletes use of banned substances. Now i want everyone to know the russians have disputed this. In following weeks. But mr. Phelps, how frustrating is it for athletes . What is the feeling like for, as you go into these competitions, can you screen all of this out when youre going into compete and you know that other countries are sanctioning this type of cheating . For me, i think, you know, as i said earlier, for me having the chance to represent my country was a tremendous honor. And you cant do anything about i cant go at that point and do anything about any other athletes. The only person can i take care of is myself. We try to stick together as a team and we know that we are going to get up on the block and fight as hard as we can. And meanwhile, what kind of testing are you going through as american athletes . I can tell you that with some of the things that ive gone through with filling out paperwork of my whereabouts of every single day of where i am. So you saw ive done it for 16 years. I filled out these forms, quarterly, right . Quarterly. I mean, theres stacks of paper. And now it is online. What kind of physical test . Blood test, urine test. It is all the time. It was monthly multiple times a month for me. And especially when im in the u. S. And even when im overseas. If you go to the Olympic Games, i guess the last four, i was tested almost everyday. Are there people going through the same things that im going through . I hope so. Apparently not, if there are 1900 athletes who competed in the rio games that were never tested at all. So mr. Tygert, youve heard mr. Budget say that some changes are in process to take ioc enflewens out of the enforcement side of antidoping. What does that mean, really . Get specific. What has to happen in process to take the fox out of hen house, at this point, over the coming months . We will see how it gets flushed out. Its good we are finally seeing it on friday and in the testimony and that level of detail. Is this in the governance structure of the ioc itself or in the i think the model is just what we know as principal of separation of powers. Have you a legislative body that makes the rules and athletes, even active athletes, should play a huge part in that sport. Governments should do that. Nados should do that. They should establish the law and then it should come time to totally independent free of sport influence to have an executive branch that then enforces the law. And then of course we have to have a judicial branch, executive branch with no sport member on it and no active athlete because they would be subject to the laws that they are supposed to be enforcing and it should make the determination of whos compliant, investigating with ensure that testing at National Levels by us here is done in the same fashion and same level of integrity and in compliance with the same rules. Well volunteer to be the first audited under the new Compliance Program as long as everyone else is also audited and held accountable under that new program. Thank you for having the intestinal fortitude to stand up for our athletes and clean competition around the world. I yield back my time. Mr. Collins from new york for five minutes. Thank you. I want to especially thank mr. Nelson and mr. Phelps. Just curious was the fourth place winner in shot put awarded bronze medal . Did he get one . Yes, it was. Good to hear. Was he even american . He wasnt american. I dont know where the medal was given to him. Im trying to get my head around what you went through. You got silver but we tend to focus on the winner, gold medal, winner of the super bowl, just amazing. So it is a great hearing. Im curious, dr. Budget, as we look at ioc and at least i read where you are looking at an independent testing agency. You know, overall, you know, im assuming then that would mean the u. S. , uk, japan, nations that i think, and i will ask the athletes, are actually doing the job. Would they then be replaced with this international this independent testing . Yes, i think i would like to say that obviously at Olympic Games, there is more testing than any other event in the world. But we all recognize far more, weve heard how thats not adequate everywhere. Thats the function of nadas like you saw and international federations. So we are working very hard with wada and a group of nadas, and to actually put in place a program of testing leading up to the next games that will be comprehensive targeted intelligence and all the thing we talk about now. Thats one suspect. Other suspect to say is that as we talk about independent Testing Authority which would certainly do the testing that sports is currently doing and ultimately we have to talk to our nada colleagues could do the testing for National Antidoping association as well because they have an equal conflict of interest when it comes to national interest. Im concerned on the budgetary piece, you know, it would appear that there are nations that u. S. , uk, japan and canada that i would ask mr. Phelps, in actually doing the job, would you think those five National Testing agencies are serious . I dont know specifics of what countries following the same exact method as we are here in the u. S. I know travis could answer that a lot better. But i do believe there are countries out there going through the same process that we are. And you know, for me, we all should be fair and we all should play on the same field and for me as a father now, like i said, in my presentation, i dont know what i would or how i would even talk to my son about doping in sports. I would hope to never have that conversation and i hope we can get it clear and cleaned up by then. For me, going through everything ive done and thats probably a question that i could get asked. From him. And i dont know how i would answer it. It is the win at any cost and certainly were seeing, you know, the health, whats happening to the health of athletes who did cheat and even in football, while it wasnt cheating, concussions and what that leads to later in life. So mr. Keeler, on wada, do you have concerns about the National Antidoping and in certain countries like the u. S. And canada . I wouldnt say we have concerns with the u. S. And canada. But we do have concerns. And i wanted to step back, if you allow me, mr. Collins, to, we can have all the governance review in the world, which we welcome and we want. I have been in this business for 20 years and its time for change. Its time to put investment into this business. If i look globery amount of money put into National Antidoping investigation it is simply insufficient. There is the crux of the issue. More vinnestment needs to be put this is to protect sport. To protect Clean Athletes. It is so important and we need to start putting that investment in and not just saying it, but doing it. And until that happens, we will never see change. So on sanctions, let me ask athletes, someone is caught cheating and they are given twoyear or fouryear suspension, is that equivalent or should we be as draconian as lifetime ban . One and done . It would show that trying to skirt the rules, one and done, what do you think . Thats very good question, sir. Avery good question, sir. Very good question, sir. To answer it, i think that you have to have some ability for the athletes to protect their own rights in the process as well. And so if youre going to increase the level of the penalties associated with it, you have to increase the investment and their ability to protect themselves as well. A lot of athletes, were the lowest common denominator in this whole big pyramid and we are also trusted to make the most critical part of the decisionmaking process. We are also the least informed and often the least prepared to make it. So im okay with increasing the penalties and doing Something Like a one and done provided there is a provision for, there is a gray area unfortunately. Emergency therapy to use exemptings forms. Medical requirements for certain actions. But im okay with the one and done. Im okay with financial penalties associated with it. This is a business. We treat it a little bit differently because it is olympic sports but at the end of the day it is a business. Can you hold them to the same standard you might hold i appreciate that. I know my time is expired. And i yield back. Thank you very much all of you for your testimony. Now recognize mr. Tank of new york for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chair. Before i begin i would like to offer my welcome to Travis Tygart. As we have done a lot of Work Together in addressing the issue of doping in this case in the sport of horse racing, this is a critically important issue for the help equine athlete and supports some 380,000 domestic jobs nationwide. If this committee is truly interested in supporting antidoping efforts across the board, i would encourage us to schedule a hearing on doping in horse racing and legislation i introduced with my colleague, andy bar, which would restore integrity back to the sport of kings. So back to this particular focus, today we have heard about investigations that reveal russias efforts to manipulate drugdoping controls. Former chief investigator for wada, jack robberson, former special agent for United States Drug Enforcement agency helped investigate some allegations involving russian doping. On august 4, 2016, running a story quoting mr. Robertson about his time at wada and in the piece mr. Robertson implied that the agency lacked adequate resources to investigate doping allegations and said and i quote, this cannot be jack versus russia. I need manpower. And money to become available. Wada beefed up every department but never investigations. I worked 11 hours a day, sometimes 18 hours. So mr. Tygart, you are seasoned investigator. Does wada have what it needs to investigate doping investigations when they arise particularly with complex cases such as russia or statesponsored or stateinvestigated doping. Clearly resources is a question. I think resources there in the budget could be better utilized to ensure investigations are done in the manner they are to to get to the bottom of them and hold those entities or organizations that cheat accountable under the rults. Im informed that wada operates on roughly 30 million budget. Half from the Olympic Movement and half from nations and states. So mr. Tygart, again based on yo your expertise, is 30 million enough for the antidoping code and should the u. S. Be contributing more . I dont know the question. Clearly theres enough money in sport, at least. You saw my testimony, the funds, ioc has, 1. 4 h billion fund total assets of 3. 9 billion, 2015. The money is there. Billion fundl assets of 3. 9 billion, 2015. The money is there. Whether its sport, whether its government. The question is, whether protecti protecting what we put out in the marketplace important to spend more than 1 or 2 on. I think absolutely it is. We ought to ensure that wada has the resources to do the job they need do. However it is supported whether through support or additional funds through government. Thank you. Mr. Koehler, do you believe you have enough money to do your job . No, i dont. And to give an exact figure today i would be remiss to do that. What i can say is that in my opening remarks we are developing a clean slate budget based on the new reforms, based on new capacities that we have to identify where and how much funding is needed. I will however say that we talk about wada increased funding. I think more importantly or equally as important, is the injection of funds into the National Antidoping organizations. The National Antidoping organizations are the ones in the field daytoday carrying out the business. If they arent equipped to do and protect the Clean Athletes, then were so far behind, we will never win this game. Thank you. According to new reports International Olympic committee has 1. 4 billion fund. Out of 1. 4 billion fund the ioc provides wada about 15 million a year. Mr. Phelps, given the extensive evidence weve heard today detailing statessponsored doping controlled manipulation, should the ioc provide more resources to wada . I mean, in my opinion i think this is something that needs to be handled today and i think we need to find whatever way it take care of this issue. We need to figure it out. And if thats more money, its more money. I mean, i think for me growing up in sports, i always looked at the greats and how they did it. And that was my dream to be one of the best. And you know, that is through hard work and dedication. And it is sad to see there are other athletes that choose to take different routes to get there. And not only will they test positive once but multiple times and they are still allowed to compete in an interNational Level. I dont think that is fair to the other athletes who are going in and going to the grind every single day to try to make sure we accomplish our goals and dreams that we have. Thank you. Mr. Chair, my time is over. I yield back. I recognize mr. Costello, pennsylvania, for five minutes. Thank you, dr. Budgett, i understand there are reanalyzing of russians from 2014 winter olympics. Can you say what testing is done on the samples and is it tested on both a and b examples . Yes. Reanalysis program has been a huge success, if you want to look at it that way. As you know before rio, we had over 100 adverse findings from london and beijing. As regards to the sochi, all samples from russian athletes have been reanalyzed and results of those are in Case Management at the moment. Also that was a also being reanalyzed. Also all of the samples on the process of forensically examined to look for efd of vidence of manipulation. Some is done by mcclarion. This is used to bring antidoping rule violation to those individuals athletes. You may have answered that within this answer but does it include a forensic analysis to bottles to identify scratches or marks to show if they may have been tampered with . Yes and to document that very exactly to be used in case. Question for all panelists, thank you for your time. I particularly want to thank the athletes for your testimony. It is a great way to raise awareness for the need for even more integrity in the Testing Process and certainly youre both here can heros. We recognize you as such. And it is very worthy that you both took the time to prepare and be here today. Having said that, i will ask you both first then open it up to all panelists, wloo would yhat deem to be appropriate progress. One year from now or two years from now, you pick a time in the future, toward achieving a more independent and honest system . Mr. Nelson, mr. Phelps and whom ever else would like it answer. I think the first thing that has to happen is to hold all the stake holders to the same level of accountability that you hold the athletes to. If you accomplish that, that will go a long way towards cleaning up sport. Second, you need to find a way to change the culture that allows this. We have talked about the differences of this area of the world and other areas of the world. I still know for a fact there are certain areas of the world where doping is part of the culture. So there has to be education and reeducation of the key players in those areas. So to me, if i could see those two changes, education and then the structural reforms, that would implement compliance, that would be a huge change. I agree completely with everything he said. And for me, it is kind of hard to we were talking earlier and someone said 20 years to get to this point. It took us this long to get here. Who knows how long it will take to get forward. Thats what is frustrating to me. As an athlete who spent over 20 years in the pool. This is something that needs to happen now and im glad people are starting to take us seriously and take this in a serious manner. Because it is crushing sports for our youth and everyone else around the world. Can you put a time limit on a year . Can you put a timeframe on a year . I dont know. It is hard hearing what im hearing and trying to put a timeframe on it. I just have no clue. Thank you for kwet. Yes. It doesnt take year. These allegations come out in december 2014. We have had well over to deal with them. Today is the day. What could happen today is wada government structure could happen. Remove sport from the executive functions because you cant promote and police. The ioc could take 500 million of the fund, set it in a blind trust to fund wada in its efforts moving forward. That could be done today. If i could just add, i think all three of those answers are spot on. Both in terms of exposing the frustration that athletes feel as well as what can technically be done to show a measurable impact. The final point i just want to say is i do find it to be extremely important to note how a system that lacks the integrity or a system that can be improved but has not yet been improved, what that does in terms of disillusionment to our athletes and what decisions athletes may be confronted with when they realize the reality of the situation. And certainly, as an american, we want it make suto make sure encouraging those in youth sports to conduct themselves in an ethical way and make sure they arent doing anything to their body that could cause them longterm health impacts. To not have a system that reinforces that should be a cause for concern for every parent and every coach and every athletic trainer. I dont think we want to put our children in that position or conundrum. Thank you all for your time. I yield back. Mr. Clark recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank of our panelists in particular mr. Nelson and mr. Phelps for puttinging a face to the athletic advocacy and demonstrating courage to call out the unethical disgraceful conduct for fwhoes permit doping to continue to plague and cheat our athletic system. Mr. Chairman, the scope and scale of the allegations of doping against russia presented in wadas independent investigations are extremely troubling. I would like to understand what sanctions russia will face as a result of the findings. Subsequent to the release of mr. Mcclarions investigation in july of last year, wadas executive Committee Recommended to the ioc that it decline entry for rio 2016 of all athletes submitted by the russian Olympic Committee and the russian paralympic committee. Mr. Koehler, why did wada recommend to the ioc that it decline all russian entries for these two events . I cant speak on behalf of the executive committee however i can tell you they deemed it appropriate to make recommendations based on a call for Clean Athletes. Mr. Tygart, as you know, the ioc did not order a collective ban of the russian team. Instead it deferred to the International Sports federations to determine which athletes should or should not compete. In your piece, the athletes voice, a force for change, you stated, quote, at the summer games in rio in 2016 scores of athletes competed despite not having been subject to credible antidoping programs, end quote. You also pointed out in your tempt that the sports federations with few exceptions had neither the time nor expertise to deal effectively with the fall out from wadas independent investigation. Can you elaborate on why moving this decision to the International Sports federations may not have resulted in the credible deliberative process where only Clean Athletes were allowed to compete . Im not sure why it was done. The justification for not banning and following wadas recommendation, russian Olympic Committee was some justification on collective justice versus individual responsibility. Which really makes no sense, i dont think, when if thats your reasoning to then hand the decision on individual justice to 38 different Sports Organizations. I think the justification given doesnt hold up when it is scrutinized and i think it ultimately resulted in shaking the system like its never been shaken before. It if the ioc did what the International Pair whralympic committee did be to ban athletes and russian federations from those games, were not here today, quite frankly. So my final question is for dr. Budgett. But mr. Koehler and mr. Tygart, please feel free to answer. Can you describe for us any jurisdictional overlap at ioc whether director indirect between those tasks with imsupposing sanctions for doping charges and those with a vote in determining future olympic host cities . Im not sure i completely understand your question. Okay. Let me repeat it then. Can you describe for us any jurisdictional overlap at the ioc whether director indirect between those tasked with imposing sanctions for doping charges and those with the vote in determining future olympic host cities. Yes, thank you. I think thats beyond my jurisdiction to answer. But for rio, i mentioned the jurisdiction over the sanctions was handed over to the court of arbitration of sport so it was not within the ioc. The ioc started the process of this independent Testing Authority by handing over the actual sanctioning process to an independent body. So it should be independent from any other function. Mr. Tygart, is it common within both entities . Yes. Wada recommended to ban the russians. When the decision came to the ioc, voted opposite of how they voted on the wada decision. They wear two hats. They make two different outcomes on the decision and ioc ultimately votes for who is awarded the Olympic Games. Recognize mr. Carter from georgia for five minutes. I kweeld back mr. Chairman. Thank all of you for being here. Thank you and especially thank you, mr. Nelson. Im a fellow georgiian. Welcome. Were glad to have you here. What people here dont recognize i dont think is that we have some really nice food courts in georgia. But certainly not nice enough to warrant you being awarded a medal on that food court. And im very sorry that you had to receive it that way. I did i understand, i was reading and researching a little bit that you first heard about this through a reporter . Yes, sir. I had no official contact from the ioc within the Olympic Movement. Dr. Budgett . What i can say is that the process is an awful lot better now and there has been some fantastic medal ceremonies for athletes who have been reawarded medals as a result of reanalysis. And im glad to hear that. What about notifying them . Do you notify them before you notify the press . Notification should come through the International Olympics committee. Before the press is notified . You would have notified the individual . Of course. Thank you. Im glad we got that straight, mr. Nelson. Mr. Nelson, have you impressed me. I read your resume. Youre kind of the traditional olympian. You just work jobs and trained and just like i think most olympians have. So i can, i feel like can i relate to you. Ill be quite honest with you. And full disclosure here. I wanted to be an olympian too. I did. And ill say more about that in a minute. Unfortunately i ended up not only being short, but lslow. But i had the same dreams. My question is this, you seem to be as i say traditional olympian, the drug testing that you had to go through, im sure that it was quite laborious and it impacted your life a lot. I think michael has probably had more testing than ive experienced in my lifetime. But they do show up at the most inoppor ti inopportune homes. Without apology. You build a relationship with your collections officers. And it is important because they learn a lot about you in the process. It is extraordinarily invasive. Mr. Phelps, you want to share some stories with as well . I agree. The wada time, for me, i have training trips to Colorado Springs to train at altitude and i would have a morning off. But i would be woken up at 6 05 by the drug testers. And i wouldnt be able to go back it sleep. So you know those are things that were doing as athletes to make sure that the sport is clean. I wish i could say that about everybody else. Can you elaborate . Im sure you have interacted with your international competitors. What kind of experiences have they had . Do they have similar experiences . They dont bring it up. They dont talk about it. They dont talk about it . No. I suspect they are not woken up at least some of them. I would like to think that some are. Right. You like to think that there is a number of the top ten, whatever it might be, top 20, top 100 in the world might be. I think the interNational Testing pool is a number of athletes who are usually under the same standards that we are all held under the same standards. For me i have to fill out every single day exactly where i am at that time. If i leave, now it is easy enough where i can get on a fen and get on the app and say my whereabouts are changing this is where im going. You have to say what plane youre on, what hotel, what your room is under, everything. Yada, yada, yada. Thats what ive gone through for 15, 16 years. You want to see time fly, get up here and wait for five minutes. And it flies. But nevertheless, mr. Koehler, you mentioned something about working with pharmaceutical manufacturers and in working with them to figure out what drugs it is that you should be looking for . Can you just elaborate on that very quickly . Very quickly. We have an arrangement with them, agreement, and an understanding where they share information on preclinical trial substances so we can find a way to defect methods of when athletes should be taking theyll. Im a pharmacist by profession so thats important to me. I have a couple more seconds. Im not trying to be dramatic here, but i think it is important. Obviously you have two World Class Athletes here who we are very proud of and are doing more than just competing. They are here testifying about a problem and trying to fix it and thank you for doing that. This is important that its fair to them. Being World Class Athletes. It is important to a lot of kids around the world. It was important to me. There is a time when all three of us were the same. I was on the cinder block and looking down at Michael Phelps and adam nelson and i was the olympic champion. We owe it to those kids. We owe it to those dreamers to make sure it is fair and that they have the opportunity to compete. Thank you both. Thank you for being here. Now, recognizing dr. Weiss for five minutes. Thank you to all the panelists. The testimony that ive heard today is disturb og noting on a of levels. Im outraged that russian officials cheated, broke the rules, attack the integrity of the olympics to influence the outcome of the olympics for their benefits. Sounds familiar, doesnt it . Russias widespread doping put their own athletes at risk. It also violate the trust between nations who put their faith in a system and work toward the same goal which is an even Playing Field for all athletes. We must have the proper checks and balances in place to ensure that no one athlete or one country cheats to have an unfair advantage. Im a physician. Dr. Budgett, we know that doping is the use of hormones, whether natural hormones or synthetic or blood transfusions, in order to increase the capacity to carry oxygen, meaning increasing red blood cells, can which could cause an increase in viscosity, high risk for strokes, pulmonary emboli and other serious life threatening problems and we see this in the Emergency Departments with young athletes. What are the symptoms that you can tell a apparent or a coach, somebody out there in the community to watch for in case a youth is using these type of drug enhancing performance enhancing drugs . Thank you as i said in my statement this is a Health Attack on athletes, so often they are the victims and often go from supplements and there is a widespread of supplement use in sport. And on to the use of prohibited substances. What are the signs and symptoms for parents and coaches to look for . Particularly in metabolic steroids of masculinization in women, then acne, and over other things like cardiac and Liver Disease and things like that. Im half way through my time. Im going to direct my attention to our nations heros, mr. Nelson and mr. Phelps. Youre a recent father. Im a father of two girls, and i cant wait to identify what their dreams are and i know there are a lot of kids out there who look up to you and who in my district who want to accomplish greatness, their greatness, what do you tell them when theyre pressured to use drugs that will enhance their performance, mr. Phelps, look at them now and speak to them on camera. My biggest thing is my whole journey started with a dream. That was it. As i said earlier, my coach and i decided we were going to come up with a plan and we were going to train on holidays, train every day of the year, we were never going to take a day off for an extended period of time and get those extra 52 days, because nobody trained on sunday, we would get those extra 52 days so we would have an extra step ahead of everybody, so if you want to be great you have to do things that other people arent willing to do, so yeah, it wasnt always fun getting up at 7 00 on a sunday to go swim, but i wanted to accomplish my goal enough that i nothing would stand in my way. I hope somebody breaks my record. I hope i have the chance to see that. Because it shows you that theyre going to attack their dreams and goals and were all going to go through hard times, and thats something i never did in my career is i never gave up and it got hard sometimes it got challenging and for me i would love to see that in kids and the future of the sport to have that power that you can get from your mind and not being afraid to dream. Thank you. Mr. Nelson would you tell the kids pressured or flirting with the idea to use doping to enhance performance . First to the parents its okay to have this conversation. My dad sat down with me at 16 years old because i was a big guy and already lifting weights and quite honestly he said im going to disown you if you ever do this. That was enough for me. We had a conversation about it. The second piece is to talk about the spirit of an olympian really is. We focus on the medals but the medals are the reward for the work you do to get there. Most of what happens as an olympic athlete is what happens when no one is watching. You have to have a gold medal process and those processes must be based on principles. Thats up to the parents, thats up to the people to decide what those principles are. If you allow for this to come into your life at any level you are promoting this particular issue in a negative light, so thats what i would say. Thank you. Thank you very much. Recognize mr. Wahlberg of michigan for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman and to the panel for being here. Appreciate this discussion. Mr. Koehler, how does wada evaluate the role of other individuals in the antidoping, for example when a coach found out that an athlete has tested positive and then ultimately find out it was a coach that encouraged him or her to dope, what happens . Whats the punishment for the coach . Thats the responsibility of the National Antidoping organizations and the international federations, but when an athlete does test positive and is sanctioned theres a requirement for the National Antidoping federation, International Sport federations to look at investigative and see if there was an influence. Is it being done comprehensively now . I dont believe so, should it be done more . Absolutely. So if we found there was no punishment, we know coaches have the potential of training on the other athletes the same way. Are we doing something to get at that . If the coach is found to be complicit in assisting an athlete, they will be sanctioned. But there has to be the mechanisms to explore that. I would say its critically important to break down the systems in place that as we heard earlier abuse their own athletes like in russia and lets be clear, those athletes had very little choice if any but to participate in the state system to dope, thats abuse of those russian athletes and we ought to do Everything Possible to stop it by systems of individual athletes and why we were so frustrated that the ioc refused to take any meaningful actions against the system that abused their own athletes in this process. And thats up to the World Community to do that, and sanctions have be sure and complete. Otherwise there will be more and more people like me that refuse to watch figure skating going on just sensing something is wrong there, but i wish you well on that. Mr. Nelson, mr. Phelps and mr. Phelps, go blue. Got to get that in. I was a wrestler in high school and college and i dont think doping would have changed my outcomes in any way shape or form for my opponent or myself but i never will forget watching dan gable a contemporary of mine, i never wrestled him and many reasons why i never did but at the ncaa finals watching him 197071, against a guy who defeated before from washington, and coming to the last seconds of the final period and gable lost by one point as a result of a reversal and knowing that dan gable had never lost high school or college ever and this was a first loss in his career and spent the next time before the olympics beating his body into submission and won a gold in the olympics and thats the sport. Thats what you were talking about that only most of us will ever experience by watching someone else do it and mr. Nelson, you have given me hope that that final second reversal that i had against chicago vocational maybe ill get that point and win it. But let me ask the two of you, in your opinion what motivated athletes to use performance enhancing drugs beyond just a win . What motivates them . I dont know. Thats the only thing i can say. As somebody who has competed clean for over 20 years, i have no clue why somebody would do that. Mr. Nelson. So im a little older, so i can remember having conversationes with some of the older athletes in the 90s. And one of things very common at that time and i can remember having a conversation with one specific athlete and said you cant throw 20 meters clean. They had a prejudgment on what they could do by themselves. They never gave themselves enough time to develop the skill sets to do that. My response was no, you cant throw 20 meters clean. But you could. I believe so and i did. Not at the time, but i believed i could. So to answer the question specifically i think its a combination of insecurity and the culture they surround themselves with that says this is the answer, this is the way forward. Until we answer that question and able to deal with the athletes we have to have sanctioning bodies resolute in doing whatever it takes to go above that evil nature as it were and make it fair for guys who will not do that at any cost. Thank you for being part of this panel. I yield back. Thank you, gentleman, i now recognize wrapup, 30 seconds. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, again, i just want to thank everybody today for coming and illuminating this. I was encouraged by mr. Koehler and dr. Budgett, that youre interested in making change. Mr. Tygart i believe your direct testimony has been really helpful. I was on the subcommittee in 2003 during the investigations on salt lake and the bid rigging, and we had the same conversation where the ioc intentions were good but werent getting there and i think because of illumination we had at another hearing it kind of nudged people. I agree with you, mr. Tygart, weve been investigating this a long time. We can figure out what we need to do about the rules and funding and can do it soon, so chairman and i were just talking im hoping well have another hearing soon and hoping the various organizations will come to that hearing and tell us the changes theyre going make. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank the gentle lady. As i listen to everything you say, im thinking where my office is in mount lebanon, pennsylvania a guy named curt angle who used to run up hill with students on his back, susie mcconnell, a basketball player, and swimmer, leah smith. Its amazing to think with all the other things going on that people like that can still shine and get their gold medal and not have to get it at a food court. I hope you get to hear the starspangled banner played for you. Will you commit to this committee to keep us informed of your progress on these reforms and appear to the committee once these are completed . On behalf of the antidoping agency, we would be pleased to keep committee uptodate on reforms and actions Going Forward. I can echo that. Thank you. Mr. Tygart submitted additional documents, so i ask unanimous consent to enter those document into the record. Without objection would do that. I want to thank all of the witnesses that participated. There are ten Business Days to submit to the record. With that, again, thank you for your attendance to this hearing. We are adjourned. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings for neil gorsuch later this month. The Constitutional Society and federal society hosted discussion on the process and word ahead for neil gorsuch. That is at 4 00 p. M. At Georgetown University law school. Can you see it live here on cspan 3. Confirmation hearings themselves are scheduled to start monday march 20th. The hearings are expected to last three to four days. The nominee, kneel gore susuch to answer questions. You can watch online on cspan. Or or the free cspan radio app. You can watch online cspan. Or or the free cspan radio app. To answer questions. You can watch online on cspan. Or or the free cspan radio app. Answer questions. You can watch online on cspan. Or or the free cspan radio app. To answer questions. You can watch online on cspan. Or or the free cspan radio app. The grant will put his faith in sherman to break out of this trap. Remember they are still inside this city. Con fed rates are still on the high ground but grants determined, were kbing to break out of this and im using sherman to do it. Harold hallser on the many paintings and photographs of president lincoln on display in the u. S. Capitol. The image that president s present in their lifetime and after inspire, motivate, caution, future leaders in the days when before twitter and instantaneous photography, which i see going on over here, or cspan. These images which look rudimentary today have enormous power, impact and influence. Sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern, International Spy Museum Historian vince hotton talks about attempts by the u. S. Government to assassinate fidel castro. During the 1950s. He certainly had a dog in the fight. He was someone who was kicked out by castro along with the casinos and mob people. These are the guys you want to be working with. They are the ones that really want to get rid of castro. And so the cia basically said we got 150,000 on the line. Whoever kills castro, the money is theirs. At 8 will okay, on the presidency, ben stein, former speechwriter for president s Richard Nixon and gerald ford we flekts on fo reflects on fords time in the white house, regarding southeast asia. The left is the defense in a way that no other president ever had. For our complete American History tv schedule go to cspan. Org. Up next here on cspan 3, a conversation from the group j street about the israelipalestinian conflict. We will hear from officiales with the National Council of jewish women, religious Action Center of reformed judaism, new israel fund and combined jewish philanthropies of greater boston. Hello, everyone. My name is eva and im a cochair of j street stanford. [ applause ] in a political moment thats

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