What does the future hold for Narsingh Yadav?
There is merit in the conspiracy claim made by Narsingh Yadav who tested positive for an anabolic steroid, but he won't be able to prove it
New Delhi: Spare a thought for Narsingh Yadav, whose Olympic dreams are all but over. The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) says that Yadav has tested positive for Methandienone, an anabolic steroid, in a test he took on 25 June, soon after his return from a Olympic training camp in Bulgaria for the Indian wrestling team for Rio 2016.
Yadav will find it hard to prove his innocence. Both his A and B samples tested positive, and according to the rules, the onus of proving innocence lies with the athlete. Yadav has said that it is a conspiracy against him, that someone slipped the drug into either his food or his drink—the steroid comes as an injectible as well as an oral pill, and if someone did crush a pill into his food, it would be undetectable to the palate.
But unless there is video evidence, or a confession from someone that this is indeed the case, a conspiracy claim like this would be impossible for Yadav to prove. The Wrestling Federation of India has backed this claim, but that will hold no weight in the final judgement, which NADA says it will take by Wednesday.
Nonetheless, there is merit in Yadav’s claim. Methandienone is a particularly odd drug for an athlete, especially a wrestler, to take so close to a competition. The anabolic steroid is used to gain bulk and muscle quickly. Any athlete competing in a sport divided by weight categories, spends the month leading up to a competition losing weight, not gaining it. This is a well-established and old system that has no exception: You gain weight at the beginning of your training cycle, at least six months before a major competition, and spend the last couple of months leading up to the tournament shedding the extra weight to get closer and closer to your category’s cut-off. It makes no sense for Yadav, who is a 74kg freestyle wrestler, to take a drug that makes him gain weight a month before the Olympics.
Methandienone is also an ancient drug in the context of doping in sports, and has been around, as a fellow sports journalist says, since Arnold Schwarzenegger was beefing up for Terminator. Most cases of methandienone abuse were caught in the 1990s—and these were mostly in power sports like Shot Put and Javelin which are not divided by weight-categories—and since 2006, the number of athletes caught for methandienone violation has dropped almost to nothing. The exception being India’s 4X400 women’s relay team, who tested positive for the drug in 2011 after an exceptional 2010 season. They too were Olympic hopefuls, preparing for the 2012 London Games. They said they were framed as well. They were banned. India and Methandienone do not share a good relationship.
“Methandienone is not something a wrestler or a boxer would take before a competition," says Dr P.S.M. Chandran, former director of sports medicine at Sports Authority of India. “First, because it makes you gain weight. Second, because it is detectible for up to four weeks. 18 weeks if it is injected. The frequency of testing goes up a lot leading to the Olympics, so this would be like suicide for an athlete in this day and age."
Yadav’s Olympic participation was under a cloud from the very beginning, for no fault of his own. He won the quota for the 74kg freestyle category by winning a bronze at the World Championships in 2015. But earlier this year, the double Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar, also in 74kg, demanded that he be given a trial for the spot (which is reserved for the country, not an individual athlete). Despite Kumar’s credentials—there is no athlete in India who can claim two individual Olympic medals except him—this was not a particularly fair demand. India almost always sends the quota-winning athlete to the Olympics. Kumar himself has never had to go through a trial for the three Olympics he has fought in—2004, 2008 and 2012.
Yadav’s training and his peace of mind was disrupted by this controversy as Kumar ratcheted up his campaign, including a social media drive called #justice4Sushil and a case at the Delhi high court. Kumar lost the case.
After news of the doping broke, Kumar and his coach and father-in-law Satpal Singh, a former wrestling champion have been ungracious in their criticism of Yadav. Kumar put out a tweet saying “Respect is to be earned not demanded," in response to an earlier statement by Yadav that his achievement in winning an Olympic quota should be ‘respected’.
Satpal Singh told reporters that what Yadav has done is “a huge treachery to the nation’.
Yadav’s suspension though will not help Kumar, who has not wrestled competitively in almost two years now. The WFI and the Indian Olympic Association have both ruled out Kumar as a replacement.
If Yadav is banned, it may be difficult for India to send a replacement since the last date for registering athletes for the Olympics was 18 July. Exceptions are made only for athletes who have pulled out with injuries.
If the International Olympic Committee does make an exception in this case, the most likely replacement will be Praveen Rana, a Delhi wrestler who has been Kumar’s understudy, and represented India at the 2014 Asian Games.
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