The Athletics Integrity Unit announced that Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who is part of the Refugee Olympic Team, has been provisionally suspended for alleged doping. According to what was published by the organization that works independently but provides services to World Athletics, trimetazidine was found on the athlete, a substance that has been prohibited since 2014.
The athlete had competed in the last two Olympic Games, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and this provisional suspension, regardless of whether it is confirmed or not, leaves the continuity of a happy story up in the air. Sadness, for now, has clouded this champion.
The AIU has provisionally suspended Anjelina Nadai Lohalith (Athlete Refugee Team) for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Trimetazidine)
Details here: https://t.co/Y8LF9j2o9f pic.twitter.com/ZDIFi1M3L6
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) April 30, 2024
The athlete from South Sudan fled her country in 2002. Escaping the war, she arrived at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, according to what the athlete herself told the Spanish newspaper El País in 2023. In that same year, Nadai She became the first athlete from the Refugee Team (created in 2015 due to the global migration crisis) to win an international competition after winning the European Club Cross Country Cup held in Oropesa del Mar, Spain.
“Being a refugee is not easy, and there are millions of us in the world. We flee wars, violence, persecution. We don’t have a country, we don’t have some rights. I am proud to be a refugee and I like to suppose that I represent us, that I am our ambassador, because although it is a condition that you cannot change, you have to stay positive, and make life something good”, Nadai reflected to the aforementioned media.
The reality, yes, today is different for the athlete. The provisional suspension lasts indefinitely. First, the facts must be clarified after the adverse result, and also give way to the appeal in order to obtain a definitive sanction. The truth is that Nadai will miss the chance to compete in his third Olympic Games.
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