Officials forced us to take drugs, says Laxmi

In a hard-hitting interview to a TV channel, Uday Laxmi, one of the 22 athletes to have tested positive at the Hyderabad National Games last year, said she and many of her colleagues were forced by the Andhra Pradesh officials to take drugs so that "Andhra Pradesh could come on top".

Uday Laxmi said the officials of Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) had told them at a training camp that they "need to win medals for AP at any cost". "You need not worry about any doping tests as they are mere official eyewash," she quoted the officials as saying. Laxmi won the two gold medals at the Hyderabad National Games, in 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay, besides a bronze in 400m run. She had also won the gold medal in the 400m at the Punjab National Games in 2001.

The Amateur Athletic Federation of India on Saturday slapped two-year bans on two athletes for doping offence but Laxmi’s case was pending before it because the procedural formalities had not been completed. Laxmi said doping was common among Indian athletes and even Sports Authority of India was aware of it.

She said the National Institute of Sport in Patiala was a “major centre” for doping activities and there were several shops around the institute that sold “all kinds of medicines”.

Laxmi said she was surprised that why many of her teammates, who openly took injections with anabolic steroids, were not caught. Laxmi, who had to undergo abortion thrice to participate in the National Games, said the federations force the athletes to use any means to win medals and when the same athletes get caught, they are left in the lurch. She said such attitude of the officials had made their profession utterly unrewarding.