Wrestler Vinod Kumar, nominated to contest the Rio Olympic Games has been kicked out of the Australian Olympic team after copping a doping ban. He was one of the two Australians qualified for the Greco- Roman discipline.
While the preliminary test turned positive, a subsequent test of his B sample was also positive, and he has been suspended four years, but has 30 days to appeal.
“The Australian Olympic Committee has asked Wrestling Australia to withdraw the nomination of athlete Vinod Kumar for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games following an anti-doping violation,” said an AOC statement on Friday.
“The international federation, United World Wrestling, has advised they will reallocate his position in the 66kg division to the next best ranked NOC.”
Born in India, 31-year-old Kumar became an Australian citizen in 2015 and represented the country for the first time in March, where he won gold at the Oceania championships in New Zealand before heading to Algeria to confirm his qualification.
He had been training in Australia since he arrived as a student in 2010. The international wrestling body, United World Wrestling, has indicated Kumar’s position will not be reallocated to another Australian. His profile has already been taken down from the Australian Olympic Team’s website.
Vinod Kumar to fight doping ban
Vinod Kumar has hired lawyers in a bid to clear his name and compete at the Rio Olympics after he was hit with a four-year ban for failing a doping test during a qualification event.
His coach, Kostya Ermakovich, said that Kumar, who was training in Germany, was devastated and had no idea how he had failed the test.
“You should see how upset he is,” Ermakovich said.
“He’s really depressed. He’s 100 per cent sure he didn’t do anything wrong.
“He’s got lawyers to fight this for him. We’re going to appeal because we don’t know what’s going on.”
Ermakovich said he was uncertain what Kumar had tested positive for but insisted his wrestler was not a drug cheat.
“I’m shattered by this … the only thing he said he was taking was protein shakes,” he said.
“I don’t need to know about any of these things. But I said to all my athletes, ‘you should never take proteins or supplements or anything’. I warned them all the time.
“Vinod’s English is really poor. Maybe he couldn’t read the labels properly or [the protein shakes] didn’t have a full description of their ingredients.”
Melbourne-based Kumar said in an interview in May that he owed friends who had helped finance his Olympic bid up to $15,000.
Both his parents had died since he left India, his mother two weeks before the interview.
“Sometimes I’m feeling very upset, thinking I am here and I have no money, nothing here,” he said.