 "Neeraj Chopra has raised concerns regarding the doping scene among Indian athletes. Reuters")
Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has raised concerns regarding the rising number of doping cases among Indian athletes. According to a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), India recorded the highest number of drug cheats across the world in 2022.
India tested 3865 samples from the period of January to December 2022, and 125 of these tested positive for doping. The report also stated India is the sole country to have more than a 100 positive cases. Countries who had a big amount of testing numbers had less number of positive doping cases, also known as Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs).
According to a 10-year global study by WADA, India ranks second among worst countries with most doping cases by minors.
‘Doping is a big problem’: Neeraj
“Totally, nowadays doping is a big problem in India among our athletes. I would like to tell them that once doping is in the mind, it gets hard in the future. They are unable to play at that level. They think that only doping can get them performance, but that is not the truth," Neeraj told The Lallantop during an interview.
The Tokyo Olympics gold medallist stressed that for an athlete, nothing good comes without hard work and that the support of coaches is equally important. “It is their hard work and self-belief, proper guidance from the coach will take you forward. Eat well, rest well and work hard. Do everything properly. To tell you the truth, once they dope, the dope test happens, and they get caught,” he added.
“They receive a ban of 2-4 years. There is no life in that. So if you want to play at a good level, the mindset of our athletes needs to be changed. I request the coaches to not tell them that doping will help them and keep them far away from it,” continued Neeraj. “I feel if this improves, our level of sports will become better.
“Nowadays what happens is that any kid who is good in sports, reaches a good level and then comes under doping. That is an issue. They also need to eat and drink outside carefully,” commented the Paris Olympics silver medallist.