A third athlete from the Refugee Olympic Team faced suspension due to a positive doping test, just days before the finalization of athlete selections for the Paris Games by the IOC.
Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, a refugee from South Sudan, allegedly used the banned heart medication trimetazidine, leading to her provisional suspension. Lohalith, who sought refuge in Kenya during the South Sudanese war, had received a scholarship from the International Olympic Committee for her third consecutive Summer Games.
Having competed in the 1,500m event in both the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Lohalith represented the Refugee Team at three World Athletics Championships.
The UNHCR reported that 75 athletes from 12 different countries, now living in 24 host countries, received scholarships for Paris. Notably, Moroccan steeplechase runner Fouad Idbafdil faced a three-year ban for testing positive for EPO, while in March, another South Sudanese 1,500m runner, Dominic Lokolong Atiol, was provisionally suspended for trimetazidine use.
Trimetazidine, also known as TMZ, surfaced in notable doping cases in 2021 involving Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva and 23 Chinese swimmers preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.
The details of the Chinese swimming scandal were extensively covered in investigative reports by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD on April 20. Despite the positive tests, the swimmers were not suspended, as the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted Chinese authorities’ explanation of contamination in a hotel kitchen.