Refugee Olympic athlete Anjelina Nadai suspended for doping days before Paris Olympics 2024 team selection
Just two days before the International Olympic Committee confirms its selection of athletes for the Paris Olympics 2024, Refugee Team’s third runner Anjelina Nadai Lohalith has suffered a suspected doping suspension.
Notably, Anjelina allegedly consumed the banned heart medication trimetazidine, the same substance that put multiple top Chinese swimmers in controversy recently for their alleged use of the medication ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“The AIU has provisionally suspended Anjelina Nadai Lohalith (Athlete Refugee Team) for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Trimetazidine),” the AIU wrote on X.
However, the Athletics Integrity Unit has yet to give a timetable for a disciplinary case. It’s important to note that the athlete was part of the 1500 m event for the refugee team at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her dreams of participating in the Paris Olympics 2024 have now been washed out.
As an eight-year-old, Lohalith fled the Civil War in South Sudan, finding refuge in the Kakuma camp in Kenya. Despite facing a lot of challenges initially, she discovered her talent for running while attending primary school in Kenya.
Moreover, Lohalith represented the refugee team at three track and field world championships and she was part of the 29 Olympic Refugee Team members in Tokyo.
IOC and UNHCR are expected to announce the refugee team for the Paris Olympics 2024
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are set to meet in a media event on Thursday, May 2, to announce the selection of the refugee team for the Paris Olympics 2024.
Interestingly, the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ, was also found in the doping tests conducted in 2021 for the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva and 23 top Chinese swimmers who were part of the Tokyo Olympics.
Valieva was later banned for four years and her team’s gold was downgraded to bronze, with the US team upgraded to gold. On the other hand, Chinese swimmers went on to win three gold medals in Tokyo as WADA accepted explanations from CHINADA that traces of the banned substance in a hotel kitchen contaminated the athletes.