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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

UNC grad honored for work as CEO of U.S. Anti-Doping Agency

The leader of the agency that polices doping by Olympic athletes have been honored by the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association with a Distinguished Young Alumni Award.

Travis Thompson Tygart ’93, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., oversees a nonprofit organization that investigates Olympic athletes suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs; reaches out to young athletes and elite amateurs to educate them on making healthy, ethical choices; and funds research related to deterring drug use in sports.

After receiving a degree in philosophy at UNC, Tygart earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University in 1999 and became outside counsel to the agency when it was formed in 2000, shortly after the Sydney Olympics. He became USADA’s director of legal affairs in 2002 and CEO in 2007.

Besides high-profile investigations of athletes and organizations, such as the BALCO laboratory in San Francisco, the Jacksonville, Fla., native has testified before Congress several times about broader issues related to illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs and the pressures on those who want to compete fairly without jeopardizing their health or compromising their integrity. His testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2008 helped achieve Senate ratification of the UNESCO anti-doping convention, an international treaty against doping in sports.

Tygart returns to UNC at least once a year to speak to journalism, law and philosophy students on ethics issues.

Since 1989, the GAA’s Distinguished Young Alumni Awards have recognized alumni aged 40 or younger whose accomplishments have brought credit to the University.

1 comment:

  1. Cool. Good to see a Carolina alumnus at the forefront of helping uphold integrity in sports.

    ReplyDelete