India may not figure at the top of the world in Olympic sports. However, when it comes to doping, the country remains on top. This is another ignominy for the country after the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Operation Carousel found discrepancies in the testing system of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), especially on the whereabouts of athletes. According to the latest WADA report, India topped the world in the percentage of doping positives against the number of samples tested. In 2022, NADA returned 125 positives, which was about 3.2 percent of the total number of samples collected. South Africa, among the nations that had collected more than 2,000 samples for the year, followed India with 2.09 percent samples testing positive. India was on top in 2021, too—with 2.3 percent samples testing positive.
This is doubly embarrassing in an Olympic year. It is disconcerting that Indian athletes continue to dope and the numbers suggest the practice is quite rampant. Before the Olympics, the authorities need to tread a cautious line because one doping failure is enough to tarnish the country’s reputation. NADA, too, needs to be more vigilant. The number of tests needs to increase. Through the total number of samples tested increased from 1,794 in 2021 to 3,865 in 2022, it is nowhere near China’s testing figure of 19,222 samples, which returned 23 positive cases. The US Anti-Doping Agency, too, had a high number of positives at 84 from 6,782 samples. In 2019, before the pandemic, NADA had tested 4,008 samples and the positives stood at 225 or 5.6 percent. In 2022, there were some high-profile cases as well, which indicates that NADA had been targeting top athletes.
If Operation Carousel was not enough to sully the image of the country’s anti-doping system, in another disturbing WADA report, India figured among the top three nations for doping among junior athletes. The 10-year study showed India was second after Russia to have the largest number of minors testing positive and getting sanctioned. This is disturbing especially because of the fact that the juniors’ overall development, both physical and mental, is at stake. All stakeholders, including NADA, the national sports federations, the Sports Authority of India and other related NGOs must come together to stop this menace.