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Olympic gold medal winner Neeraj Chopra, the poster boy of Indian javelin competitors, has offered a blunt assessment of the doping crisis among Indian athletes. Chopra sought a mindset change among athletes and coaches, in a recent interview.
Notably, a recent study conducted by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) had revealed that India had the highest number of drug cheats in the world in 2022. India has also been named as the second worst country for positive doping cases by minors in a 10-year global study.
When asked about the challenges of Indian athletes in a recent interview with Lallantop, Chopra admitted doping has become a big problem among athletes. He also talked about the negative repercussions of doping and the role of coaches in providing sound guidance.
Speaking to Lallantop, Chopra said, “Totally, nowadays doping is a big problem in India among our athletes. I would like to tell them that once doping is in the mind, it gets hard in the future. They are unable to play at that level. They think that only doping can get them performance, but that is not the truth. It is their hard work and self-belief, proper guidance from the coach will take you forward. Eat well, rest well and work hard. Do everything properly. ”
“To tell you the truth, once they dope, the dope test happens, and they get caught. They receive a ban of 2-4 years. There is no life in that. So if you want to play at a good level, the mindset of our athletes needs to be changed. I request the coaches to not tell them that doping will help them and keep them far away from it.” he added
Chopra, who won the Olympic gold in 2020 and 2024 Olympics Silver added, “I feel if this improves, our level of sports will become better. Nowadays what happens is that any kid who is good in sports, reaches a good level and then comes under doping. That is an issue. They also need to eat and drink outside carefully.”
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