Gymnast Dipa serving suspension for whereabouts failure

Tribune News Service

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, December 24

The mystery of Khel Ratna awardee Dipa Karmakar’s absence from competitions is over. The ace gymnast is serving an anti-doping suspension on account of a whereabouts failure.

Dipa, who finished fourth at the Rio Olympics in the vault event, was suspended by the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) along with 12 other athletes in March this year. However, no reason was given for the suspension.

It is understood that Dipa is serving a ban for failing to follow the whereabouts guidelines of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and this explains her continued absence. She has not competed since 2019.

Speaking to The Tribune, Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI) president Sudhir Mittal claimed he was unaware of any suspension.

“I am not aware that Dipa is currently under suspension. We have not received any mail in this regard,” Mittal said today.

However, the Delhi Gymnastics Association (DGA) has raised Dipa’s issue in its complaint to the FIG.

“There is no disciplinary action against Ms Dipa Karmakar who failed to cooperate with the doping test conducted by WADA. The matter has to be referred to disciplinary commission for action against her and her parent state member,” DGA secretary general Ram Dulare wrote to the FIG president, seeking an ethics commission enquiry against Mittal and other office-bearers for several wrongdoings.

Privately, the authorities blame Dronacharya Award-winning coach Bishweshwar Nandi, who is the Indian women’s team coach. Officials reckon that it was his duty to file Dipa’s whereabouts on the Anti-Doping Administration Management System. Despite repeated attempts, Nandi was unavailable for comments.

As per WADA rules, “any combination of 3 whereabouts failures (filing failure and/or missed test) within a period of 12 months constitute an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable sanction is 2 years’ ineligibility subject to a reduction to a minimum of 1 year depending on your degree of fault.”