Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, an Olympic refugee athlete, has been suspended in her team’s third doping case ahead of the Paris Games
Two days before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially certifies its selection of competitors for the Paris Games, the Refugee Olympic Team announced the suspension of their third runner due to a failed drug test.
The Athletics Integrity Unit for track and field reported that Anjelina Nadai Lohalith was informed of her suspected usage of the illegal cardiac drug trimetazidine and was subsequently placed on provisional suspension. There was no timeline provided for a disciplinary case.
An International Olympic Committee scholarship was helping Lohalith, who escaped the violence in South Sudan as a young girl and found safety in a Kenyan camp, to get ready for her third consecutive Summer Games.
The 31-year-old competitor competed in the 1,500 meters for the refugee squad in its first two Summer Games, staged in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.
To conclude the selection of the refugee squad for the July 26–August 11 Paris Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have planned a media event for this Thursday.
Lohalith was one of 29 members of the Olympic Refugee Squad in Tokyo and competed for the refugee squad in three international track and field championships.
According to UNHCR, 75 athletes from 14 different sports received scholarships to Paris. These athletes now reside in 24 host nations, representing 12 different countries.
Fouad Idbafdil, a Moroccan scholarship athlete who raced the 3,000-meter steeplechase, was banned for three years in December after testing positive for the hormone EPO, which increases endurance.
Another 1,500-meter runner who was originally from South Sudan, Dominic Lokolong Atiol, was also placed on temporary suspension in March after testing positive for trimetazidine.
The drug, dubbed TMZ, was also discovered in high-profile positive tests administered in 2021 to 23 Chinese swimmers training for the Tokyo Olympics and Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, Valieva’s case came to light after she assisted the Russian team in winning the gold medal in the team event. Later, Valieva was disqualified, banned for four years, and the US was promoted to gold while the Russians were demoted to bronze. There are still active appeals in the case.
Investigative stories published on April 20 by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD went into depth about the Chinese swimming case.
The World Anti-Doping Agency accepted Chinese officials’ explanations and proof that the swimmers were tainted by drug residue in a hotel kitchen, thus, the athletes were not punished and three went on to win gold medals in Tokyo.
