Editorial: Detoxify Indian sports

At last, an Olympic record for India ? but not quite the one we were hoping for. For the first time ever, Indians have failed an Olympic drugs test.

At last, an Olympic record for India — but not quite the one we were hoping for. For the first time ever, Indians have failed an Olympic drugs test. The suspension of two weightlifters for flunking the test tarnishes whatever precious little metal that a handful of Indian Olympians may still manage to bring home. This is a wake-up call to the country’s sporting establishment whose main aim till now seemed to be petty politicking and junketeering.

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The issue throws up many intriguing questions. Why were lifters like Sanamacha Chanu, suspended in the past for testing positive, not monitored more closely during the run-up to the big event? Was it responsible for the no-show of another lifter and the sudden ‘injury’ of her colleague? The Sports Authority of India (SAI) must explain how they were cleared just before the Games and how they tested positive in Athens?

Perhaps this only marks the dubious coming of age of Indian sports, since the world’s worst-kept secret is that doping is not rare among athletes. Anabolic steroids (prescription drugs that mimic the effects of the male sex hormone testosterone and help convert protein into muscle) have been used to cheat in sport for years with coaches routinely giving athletes muscle-boosting ster-oids, masked as ‘vitamins’. In fact, a renowned Indian athlete has filed PILs against sports authorities for supporting a doping programme in the country.