Man who took down Lance Armstrong asked to help strengthen Jamaican anti-doping

Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), is being asked to help strengthen the systems in place to fight the use of performance enhancing drugs in Jamaica.

USADA offered to assist Jamaica in building a more robust system for fighting drug use in athletes four years ago, but the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) denied the offer. The country may reconsider this time around after being under a magnifying glass for revelations about holes in their anti-doping efforts.

The small island nation that leads the world in sprinting has come under scrutiny for lackluster drug testing leading up to the 2012 Olympics. It was recently exposed that in the six months leading up to the London games JADCO only performed one drug test. There were also a slew of big-name Jamaican athletes who tested positive this summer before the world championships for PEDs.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is hosting their World Conference on Doping in Sport this week in Johannesburg and Tygrt has noted he will be meeting with some members of JADCO. The conference will last until Friday.

“At the end of the day, this is tough work, and will and determination is what’s necessary to fully protect ­athletes,” Tygart told the Telegraph. “We’ve offered to send a staffer down for an extended period of time, we’ve offered to host them again at our offices, to send a team down again.”

Tygart has been in the news a lot in the past year. He is the man who has been at the helm of bringing down Lance Armstrong and was a major force behind him being served a lifetime ban.