How doping crisis pushed India past Kenya to top athletics blacklist

In an embarrassing moment for India and its ambitions of hosting the Olympics and becoming a sporting superpower, the country has now gone past Kenya to top the Athletics Integrity Unit’s list of ineligible athletes due to doping violations. India now has 148 athletes in the list, two more than the eastern African nation that is considered a powerhouse in distance running, among other track and field events.

Russia, which has been banned from competing at the Olympics and other major sporting events for over a decade now, is third on the list with 66 suspended athletes in the list that has been updated till 1 April.

The list includes athletes serving a period of ineligibility due to national-level cases and decisions as well as those who have committed non-doping violations such as tampering, which carry the same penalty as a doping offence.

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Doping menace continues to haunt India

Some of the more prominent Indians mentioned in the list are sprinters Dutee Chand and Sekar Dhanalakshmi and middle-distance runner Parvej Khan. Chand, the women’s 100m national record holder is serving a four-year suspension that ends in December this year.

Khan and Dhanalakshmi, however, are serving much longer sentences with their suspensions ending in 2030 and 2033 respectively.

The AIU is World Athletics’ independent anti-doping watchdog that has jurisdiction over international-level athletes as well as their support persons.

And it’s not just the  AIU’s list where India finds itself leading the pack for the wrong reason. The country had also found itself at the top in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s annual report for the year 2024, with 260 athletes testing positive for banned substances – making it the only country with a three-digit number in the list.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had introduced strict measures in order to tackle doping among track and field athletes, which included tracking down centres across the country that were linked to the menace.

The governing body for Indian athletics had also made it mandatory for coaches to register with them, with failure to do so resulting in them getting blacklisted and their trainees being deemed ineligible for national awards.