Olympic refugee athlete Lohalith suspended in the team's 3rd doping case ahead of Paris Games
GENEVA (AP) — A third runner on the Refugee Olympic Team has been suspended for a positive doping test, with the announcement coming two days before the IOC confirms its selection of athletes for the Paris Games.
Anjelina Nadai Lohalith was notified of her alleged use of the banned heart medication trimetazidine and provisionally banned, track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit said. It gave no timetable for a disciplinary case.
Lohalith, who fled war in South Sudan as a child to a refugee camp in Kenya, was being funded with an International Olympic Committee scholarship to prepare for her third straight Summer Games.
The 31-year-old athlete ran in the 1,500 meters for the refugee team at the previous two Summer Games, when it debuted in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
The IOC and UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, have scheduled a media event on Thursday to finalize the selection of the refugee team for the Paris Olympics being held July 26-Aug. 11.