Lira was the first defendant to be charged under the Act, signed into law in 2020 following revelations of state sponsored doping programmes by Russia and named after Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory in Moscow before fleeing the country and becoming a whistleblower. 

The 43-year-old Lira admitted supplying banned performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) to athletes before the re-arranged 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. 

These included Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare, a double 2014 Commonwealth Games 100 and 200 metres champion and 2008 Olympic long jump silver medallist. 

Lira had been the subject of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Integrity in Sports and Gaming Initiative and the prosecution had been brought by the Southern District of New York Attorney's office.

"Without this law, Lira, who held himself out as a doctor to athletes, likely would have escaped consequence for his distribution of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs and his conspiracy to defraud the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games because he did not fall under any sport anti-doping rules," Tygart said.

Lira made his guilty plea at the Manhattan Federal Court before United States Magistrate Judge Judge Valerie Figueredo.

"This conviction is a watershed moment for international sport,  Lira provided banned performance-enhancing substances to Olympic athletes who wanted to corruptly gain a competitive edge," US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced.

"Such craven efforts to undermine the integrity of sport subverts the purpose of the Olympic Games, to showcase athletic excellence through a level playing field.

"Lira’s efforts to pervert that goal will not go unpunished."

The maximum sentence for the offences prescribed by Congress is 10 years in prison, but sentencing will be decided by the judge.

The charges related to the provision of PEDs such as human growth hormone and the blood boosting drug erythropoietin,

Lira who was described in official court papers as a "kinesiologist and naturopathic" doctor operating mostly in and around El Paso in Texas.

He was alleged to have obtained "unapproved" versions of these, and other, prescription drugs from sources in Central and South America before bringing them into the US.

Lira had made contact throughout the transactions with two athletes described in court papers as "Athlete 1" and "Athlete 2,"

This had been made by encrypted electronic communications which court papers showed discussed the sale and shipment and use and also the "testability" of the drugs.

When positive tests were returned, Lira "directly and indirectly advised that the athletes should blame the positive drug test on contaminated meat, knowing full well that the drug tests had accurately detected the presence of banned, performance-enhancing drugs," the court statement said.

Last February, Okagbare was identified as one of the two athletes and handed a 10-year ban from the sport following a positive test.

Switzerland's Alex Wilson, a 2018 European Championship 200m bronze medallist, was also banned for testing positive before Tokyo 2020.

He was named by Swiss media as having received materials from Lira.

In February, another Nigerian sprinter Divine Oduduru was provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit for possession and use of a banned substance. 

He also was named in connection with Lira's activities.

Last year Jamaican long jumper and triple jumper Sabina Allen was the first athlete to receive a ban since the introduction of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act. 

She will not be permitted to compete again until June 2025.