Sanjita Chanu, a two-time Commonwealth Games winner, and Indian weightlifter was banned for four years by India’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Tuesday after testing positive for banned drugs.
Chanu was tested for drostanolone, an anabolic-androgenic steroid banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, during the National Games 2022 in Gujarat in September-October. (WADA). Drostanolone is primarily used to treat late inoperable breast cancer in women. Athletes, on the other hand, frequently abuse steroids as a performance booster.
NADA had suspended the Indian weightlifter indefinitely from the date of her sample collection and revealed the full length of her punishment on Tuesday. Sanjita Chanu’s silver award from the National Games will also be revoked as a result of the decision.
Chanu can still appeal the decision, but she appeared hesitant to do so.
This was not Chanu’s first encounter with the drug net. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) banned Chanu in 2018 after she tested positive for the anabolic steroid testosterone in a 2017 test performed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
The IWF withdrew the doping charges against Sanjita Chanu in 2020 due to “non-conformities” in the handling of her sample.
Over the last decade, Chanu has been one of India’s most accomplished weightlifters.
In addition to her gold medals from the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, Sanjita Chanu earned a bronze medal at the 2011 Asian Championships and three gold medals from the Commonwealth Games in 2012, 2015, and 2017.
Shivpal Singh, Kamalpreet Kaur, Dhanalakshmi Sekar, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, and India’s promising long jumper Aishwarya Babu were all captured in the doping net last year.