Going it Alone: How the Rodchenkov Act of 2019 embodied a long history of America predilection toward singular action within global sport

Description

Signed into law on December 4th, 2020, the Rodchenkov Act made it unlawful to knowingly influence a major international sport competition by use of a prohibited substance or method (21 USC. 2401). The Act’s passage was spurred on by defenses of U.S. extraterritorial pushes within international sports (Slattery, 2018). Most notable about the Act is how it used rhetoric on doping and clean sport to assert international authority. This piece, therefore, asks whether the Rodchenkov Act resides as an outlier or as the latest in a long history of American unilateral action and extraterritorial jurisdiction in international affairs. To answer, this paper will marry examinations of Congressional actions toward international governing bodies of sport with similar non-sport legislation to reveal an uneven historical commitment from the United States to multinational cooperation in international sport.

After the delayed Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. Congress quietly introduced two bills to strengthen the Rodchenkov Act (H.R.4906 & S.2632). They both cite domestic legislative precedent from the 1970s, including the RICO Act, to underscore the perceived necessity for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to prioritize international enforcement. To place these recent and escalating actions in proper historical context I have relied primarily upon Congressional archives from the last twenty years, with domestic and international newspapers highlighting the global response.

An increasingly poignant aspect revealed by the research is the historic bipartisan support such bills have received in the oft-divided chambers of the US federal legislative assembly. The uncharacteristic support such proposals have received provides telling insight into the actual desire of the United States to operate as a collaborative global partner. Therefore, understanding the history behind these legislative proposals is crucial to parsing out the United States’ contradictory approach to multi-lateral cooperation through international sport.

Period	May 2024
Event title	North American Society for Sport History
Event type	Conference
Location	Denver, United States, ColoradoShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International