Speaker Profile

Chief Executive Officer, U. S. Anti-Doping Agency Travis T. Tygart became Chief Executive Officer of the U. S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in September of 2007. In his eleven years at USADA he has also served as the Director of Legal Affairs and as Senior Managing Director & General Counsel; prosecuting cases on behalf of clean athletes before the American Arbitration Association and the Court of Arbitration for Sport. As CEO, Tygart works closely with the USADA Board of Directors to carry out the organization's mission of preserving the integrity of competition, inspiring true sport, and protecting the rights of U. S. athletes. Tygart was actively involved in drafting the USADA Protocol for Olympic Movement Testing, and as CEO he has injected a fresh passion and energy into the fight against doping, including reaching out to America's Olympic Athletes and embracing them as part of the solution. Tygart has served as an advocate for the integrity of sport and clean athletes, testifying in front of various Committees of the U. S. Congress, including the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport, the need for hGH testing in all sports, regulation of the supplement industry, and the ratification of the UNESCO international treaty against doping in sport. Tygart has also testified internationally in front of Committees of the German Parliament and the French Senate about creating effective anti-doping policy and on the issues surrounding doping in sport. Under Tygart's leadership, USADA's efforts to protect clean athletes have included cooperating with Federal authorities on numerous investigations, including the international steroid bust, Operation Raw deal and the international doping conspiracy involving the BALCO laboratory in San Francisco. Tygart led the investigation into the team-wide US Postal Service Pro-Cycling Team Doping Conspiracy and the Lance Armstrong case, which uncovered the most sophisticated and professionalized doping scheme that sport had ever seen. Tygart's tenure as CEO also produced the groundbreaking research on the importance of true sport, "What Sport Means in America," and the "True Sport Report. "Tygart currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Sports Lawyers Association and the Board of Governors of the Partnership for Clean Competition. He has previously served on various committees and boards including, the Society for Major League Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches, the House Government Reform Committee's Zero Tolerance Roundtable, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Agencies and was appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as the Vice-Chair for its Independent Observers Team, which monitored the doping control and legal processes at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Tygart has been recognized by Sports Illustrated as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Sports; named to the TIME 100 list of most influential people in the world for 2013; named one of the top 12 World Sports Personalities of the Year by Sport Intern; one of the World's Most Influential Sports Personalities by Inside Sport and was one of the Colorado Lawyers of the Year named by Colorado Law Weekly. A lawyer by training, Tygart has also published numerous papers and law review articles on topics including, Title IX, antitrust, and doping in sport. Originally from Jacksonville, Fla. , Tygart graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor's degree in philosophy, and in 2010 received the University's Distinguished Young Alumni Award. Tygart went on to get his J. D. from Southern Methodist University in 1999, graduating Order of the Coif. Tygart is married to Nichole and they have three children ages 12, 10 and 6.