Neeraj Chopra, the two-time Olympic medallist in javelin throw, has flagged doping among young athletes as a major concern for Indian sports.

Nowadays doping is a big problem in India among our athletes. I want to tell them that once doping is in their mind, it gets hard in the future. They are unable to play at that level. They think that only doping can improve their performance, but that is not the truth. It is their hard work and self-belief, proper guidance from the coach will take you forward.
Chopra, who won India's first gold medal in athletics in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a silver medal at Paris 2024, has rightly flagged this issue as the number of positive doping cases has drastically risen in India.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent body set up to run the anti-doping programme for World Athletics, last week suspended Indian middle-distance runner Archana Jadhav for using a banned substance.
In December 2024, the AIU had sanctioned three Indians -- sprinter Ankit Kumar (100m, 200m), Vinit Rathi, who participates in 3000m steeplechase and 5000m, and Jeyavindhiya Jegadish, an Asian junior medallist in women's 400m and 400m hurdles -- for failing dope tests. Kumar has been suspended for four years while the other two will be out for three years.
India currently has a huge number of athletes ineligible for competitions because of doping, placed second behind Kenya.
According to data made available by the AIU for the year ending December 2024, Kenya tops the list with 119 cases while India is second at 108. Russia is third in the countries with the most ineligible athletes at 73. China, in contrast, has only 26 such cases while the United States has only 16 such athletes.
At the other end of the spectrum are countries like Ethiopia 14, Italy 18, Ukraine 17, France 11, Belarus 10 and Nigeria 10. World Athletics has 214 federations, and 139 had no one on the list of currently ineligible athletes.
SPORTS NEWS
Show more newsAnother reason for being worried about the efforts on the anti-doping front is the increase in the numbers of ineligible athletes in the last two years in the top two offender countries -- Kenya and India.
While Kenya and India had 54 and 65 ineligible athletes, respectively, on 31 December 2022, the number has surged to 119 and 108, respectively in the same period in 2024.
The use of illegal and banned performance-enhancing substances is not only a problem in athletics, it is a menace for other sports too.
According to data provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), India had the highest number of doping violations in the year 2022. That year, more than 3,865 samples were taken for testing from January to December 2022, 125 of which were confirmed by the laboratory to be positive for Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs).
And going by the trend flagged by both WADA and AIU, these numbers have increased in the last two years and the numbers would definitely rise in future.
The National Anti-doping Authority (NADA) of India, which has been set up by the central government under the guidance of the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India (SAI) is doing its bit by conducting anti-doping activities and sanctioning athletes.
However, its efforts raise question marks if one considers the manner in which it has gone on to sanction Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, who has retired from wrestling after the Paris Olympics and was contesting legislative elections.
In its updated list of athletes for the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) for the year 2025, the NADA has picked some athletes who have participated in just one or two events in the 2024 season and left out known names that have won medals in the Commonwealth and Asian Games and have participated in a number of events in 2024.
All in all, it paints a worrying picture for sports in India and if the trend continues, this problem is going to tarnish the country's image further. It should be a matter of concern for authorities especially when India has shown interest in hosting the Summer Olympics of 2036.
Doping undermines the spirit of fair play and tarnishes the integrity of Indian sports. It not only damages athletes’ health but also harms the reputation of the country on the global stage. To start with, we need to focus on educating athletes. That is the only option.
More Tests Is Good For India
The outgoing President of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Adille Sumariwala and the association's senior official Anju Bobby George believe that the high number of dope positives and ineligibility is good for Indian sports.
If more people are getting caught, it's good, which means that we are testing more, we are catching more, we are catching all the crooks and culprits. So I think it's a good sign that people know that over some time, you will get caught if you dope, and then that's the only way you will see a reduction in the long term.
Anju Bobby George, India’s first athlete ever to win a medal at the 2003 World Athletics Championships – a bronze in Paris – had some advice for the youngsters.
Don’t suffer for life for short-term gain. Be wise
Anju further added that the AFI is doing everything to make athletes aware of doping and its ill effects on those taking performance-enhancing drugs.
The AFI is distributing pamphlets, holding regular cases, and conducting education programmes to raise awareness among athletes.
Sumariwala said they are also working with the government to make doping a criminal offense.
We, at the Athletics Federation of India, have zero tolerance to doping. Doping is mostly done at the district level, where district coaches are responsible for even supplying banned substances to juniors, which is again, an offense under the Juvenile Act.
And we are looking to see how we can enhance the doping bill to make doping a criminal offense so that we can send these coaches to jail. But this is because it's mostly state coaches appointed by the state government. They don't want to be transferred after three years (as per rules and want to succeed to remain in their job).
Making doping a criminal offense would surely help deter those thinking of using performance-enhancing substances for easy success.
The numbers will come down only after that.


