Indian boxer Parveen Hooda faces a ban from the Paris Olympics due to a WADA ban

World champion bronze medalist Parveen Hooda, who secured a quota for the Paris Olympics in the women’s 57kg weight category at the Asian Games last year, is facing a major setback. The Indian boxer was banned for one and a half years by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for three reporting violations within 12 months.

Parveen’s failure to comply with WADA’s strict location reporting rules from April 2022 to March 2023 has resulted in her suspension, which begins this month and will last until November 2025. “She was suspended by WADA for 1.5 years. The suspension will begin this month.” “It will last till November 2025,” her coach Sudhir Hooda confirmed to PTI.

Athletes in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) are required to provide detailed information about their whereabouts. This includes their overnight address, training locations, work locations and other regular activities, as well as specific 60-minute windows per day during which they must be available for testing. Failure to provide this information correctly may result in a whereabouts error which, if three cases occur within 12 months, will result in a ban.

WADA regulations state: “Any combination of three reporting violations (failure to submit documentation and/or failure to test) within a 12-month period constitutes an anti-doping rule violation for which the applicable sanction is one two-year ban, subject to reduction to a minimum of 1 year, depending on the degree of your fault.

Parveen’s lawyer Vidushpat Singhania is currently in discussions with the International Testing Agency (ITA) and other relevant parties to mitigate the sanction. “We have corresponded with several parties, including the ITA and WADA ombudsman. We are trying our best for no or reduced sanction,” Singhania said. “We are trying to get them to withdraw the whereabouts notice. In this case there will be no sanctions. We are aiming for immediate completion as the Olympic quota places have not been filled,” he added.

But even if the sanction is shortened to at least a year, Parveen will still not be able to take part in the Paris Olympics, which will be held in July and August this year. This is a big blow as Parveen was among four Indian boxers who secured a spot for the 2024 Games. The others include Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg). In boxing, Olympic quotas are allocated to the athlete and not the country, meaning India cannot replace him with another boxer.

The final Olympic qualifier is scheduled to begin on May 24th in Bangkok.

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(With PTI inputs)