Olympics bid looming, athletics watchdog flags ‘extremely high’ doping risk in India

The downgrade, in the form of a re-classification of AFI, means India’s track and field athletes will now have to comply with more stringent anti-doping stipulations, with all national team members having to undergo tests before major championships. The setback comes in a year.

“The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk. While the AFI has advocated for anti-doping reforms within India, not enough has changed.

What Happened

The AIU will now work with the AFI to achieve reforms to safeguard the integrity of the sport of athletics, as we have done with other ‘Category A’ Member Federations,” AIU Chair David Howman said in a statement. For the record, no.

• In a move that could impact India’s bid to host the 2036 Summer Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Board, an autonomous body set up by World Athletics, has downgraded the Athletics Federation of.

• Last July, when an Indian delegation made its pitch to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne to host the 2036 Olympics, India’s track record on doping was one of.

• Between 2002 and 2025, India was among the top two in the list of countries with the most Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) in athletics, according to data presented in the AIU statement.

Key Details

Five other countries tested their athletes more rigorously than India: Germany (15,081 tests; 54 positives), France (11,744 tests; 91 positives), Russia (10,514 tests; 76 positives), Italy (9,304 tests; 85 positives) and the UK (8,273 tests; 30 positives). Speaking to The Indian Express.

• India recorded 48 Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ranked 2nd) in 2022, 63 (ranked 2nd) in 2023 and 71 in 2024 (ranked 1st).

• For 2025, India has recorded 30 ADRVs so far, which makes it the worst offender so far, but with a caveat that there is a substantial time lag in reporting the final ADRV numbers.

• India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of dope cheats in the world across sports, according to the annual report for 2024 of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Why It Matters

All in all, it will clean up the system. More has to be done in gathering intelligence, out-of-competition testing and testing at state and district level,” he said.

• According to the data, 260 Indian athletes tested positive for prohibited performance-enhancing drugs in 2024.

• Also, at 3.6 per cent, India’s positivity ratio was among the highest in the world.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) collected 7,113 urine and blood samples of which 260 returned positive.

• China, in contrast, conducted 24,214 tests and had 43 positive cases.

• Continued reporting by The Indian Express as more details emerge