Tokyo Olympics: Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (RADA) and how will it affect this year's Games?

The Radachenkov Anti-Doping Act, or RADA, being implemented at the Tokyo Olympics, is an act that extends the jurisdictional powers of the United States of America's law enforcement to punish athletes/officials involved in doping scandals. It allows US authorities to seek appeal for fines of upto $1 million and jail terms of upto 10 years.

The Act the covers international sporting competitions that involve American athletes or have financial connections to the United States. After being passed into law in December 2020, the Act will be implemented for the first time during the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

The legislation has been hailed as a game-changer for cleaning up international sporting events and ridding them of doping scandals. In the past, countries like Russia have been found guilty of carrying out state-sponsored doping scandals to enhance the performance of their athletes. Several Russian athletes were banned, including their track and field athletes during the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The Act has also been aimed at providing a return on investment to the sponsors of these sporting events by providing games that are free of drug use.

The Act has been named after the Russian chemist Grigory Rodchenkov, who played a whistleblower and helped expose the doping scandal being carried out in Russia for various winter and summer Olympic sports. Rodchenkov admitted to providing anabolic steroids to Russian athletes to help them recover, and tampering with urine samples meant for testing.

While the RADA gives power to the US authorities to prosecute violators of doping laws, the World Anti-Doping Agency continues to be the official body responsible for promoting, monitoring and coordinating the fight against the use of drugs in sports.

Anti-doping measures at the Tokyo Olympics

The International Olympic Committee's World Anti-Doping Code will be applicable for the Tokyo Olympics.

However, the sample collection and sanction awarding has been delegated to the International Testing Agency and Court of Arbitration for Sports Anti-Doping Department.

Testing and sanctioning to be independent from the IOC at #Tokyo2020. @IntTestAgency and Court of Arbitration for Sport Anti-doping Division (CAS ADD) to handle these respectively.@wada_ama: global testing figures now higher than pre-pandemic levels.https://t.co/TqFlLEMtOg

— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 20, 2021

The ITA recently announced that it will collect 5000 in and out-of-competition samples during the Tokyo Olympics 2020, making it the most extensively implemented anti-doping program ever.