A third member of the Refugee Olympic team has been suspended after testing positive for doping, just two days before the IOC finalizes its selection for the Paris Games.
Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who fled war-torn South Sudan as a child and sought refuge in a Kenyan camp, received notice of her alleged use of banned heart medication, trimetazidine, resulting in a provisional suspension, according to the athletics integrity unit. No timeline was provided for the disciplinary process.
Lohalith, 31, had been supported by a scholarship from the International Olympic Committee to train for her third consecutive Summer Games. She competed in the 1,500m for the Refugee team in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The IOC, along with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), had scheduled a media event for Thursday to finalize the selection of the refugee team for the Paris Olympics, set to take place from July 26 to August 11. Lohalith had represented the Refugee Team at three World Athletics Championships and was among the 29 members of the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo.
According to UNHCR, 75 athletes from 14 sports, hailing from 12 countries and residing in 24 host countries, had received scholarships for Paris. Among them was Fouad Idbafdil, a Moroccan 3,000m steeplechase runner, who was banned for three years in December after testing positive for the endurance hormone EPO. In March, another 1,500m runner from South Sudan, Dominic Lokolong Atiol, was also provisionally suspended for testing positive for trimetazidine.
This drug, also known as TMZ, had previously surfaced in high-profile positive tests, including those of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva and 23 Chinese swimmers preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. Valieva’s case emerged during the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, where she contributed to the Russian team’s gold medal in the team event. Subsequently, Valieva was disqualified and suspended for four years, leading to the demotion of the Russian team to bronze and the promotion of the United States to gold. The case remains ongoing with further appeals pending.
The incident involving the Chinese swimmers was extensively detailed in investigative reports from the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD on April 20. Despite no suspensions, three of the swimmers went on to win gold medals in Tokyo, as the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted explanations and evidence from Chinese authorities suggesting contamination of the athletes with trace amounts of the drug in a hotel kitchen.
