Hyderabad: To compete with honesty and to embrace defeat with grace are the two important qualities of sportsmanship. On the contrary, several countries have been resorting to performance enhancing drugs, to gain an unethical advantage over other players. Popularly termed as doping, this practice is going unperturbed for quite a while now. Unfortunately, there have been such instances in the domestic sporting arena too.
Against this backdrop, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) dropping doping charges against weightlifter Sanjita Chanu came as a respite to India. On the other hand, Gomathi Marimuthu, who won the 800-meter gold at the 2019 Asian Championships, has been handed a four-year doping ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Meanwhile, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has also prepared ground to ban sportsmen Amritpal Singh (basketball), Neeraj Phogat (boxing) and Shravan Kumar (shooting). Along with Kabaddi, Javelin throw and weightlifting professionals, cricketer Prithvi Shah and athlete Sanjeevini Jadav have also been blacklisted by NADA.
The lack of professionalism in sports has made India stand with the likes of Russia and Turkey.
In the contemporary sports history, one nation that is synonymous with moral collapse is Russia. In fact, WADA had set up an Independent Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) to complete the investigation of 298 Russian athletes. Doping has become a part of the system in Russia. Sportsmen, coaches, doctors and officials are all involved in the process.
In the wake of doping allegations, WADA has banned Russia from competing in any major sporting events for the next 4 years. While systemic doping is common is Russia, the case is quite different in India. Errors and ignorance on the part of certain people have brought shame to the country.
Nations like Germany, Italy, France and Spain have formulated strict anti-doping laws. Cyprus, Denmark and Portugal have enforced a ban on the import of performance enhancing drugs. In India, several sportsmen have failed the doping tests as they apparently resorted to prohibited steroids like Ligandrol. Though sporting stalwarts like Mary Kom have been appealing to the sports officials to conduct extensive anti-doping awareness campaigns, the machinery has turned a deaf ear.
As the doping tests came to a halt owing to the pandemic, WADA said that it would employ Artificial Intelligence in the coming days. NADA needs to be proactive in educating the athletes about anti-doping and take measures to prevent any future instances that can tarnish the nation’s image.
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