As athletes started gearing up this week for the selection trials of the Asian cadet wrestling championships, a young grappler found she was grossly overweight for her category. With two days to go for her event, it was a desperate time, so she resorted to desperate measures.

Walking into a medical store just a kilometre away from the training centre, she purchased a strip of Lasix, containing the diuretic Furosemide which is in the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of banned substances. The drug was sold to her without any prescription, with no questions asked.

“I had to lose nine kg in two days because the federation officials informed us late of the trials. I managed to lose seven until the evening of the trials but had to resort to desperate measures to lose the rest,” the wrestler, who did not wish to be identified, told The Indian Express.

This incident, several national-level coaches, administrators and athletes confirmed, was not an isolated case.

‘Insufficient knowledge’

Jagdish Singh, a wrestling coach with Sports Authority of India, Bhiwani said that Lasix has been commonly used for quick weight loss over the last 10 years.

“Use of Lasix by wrestlers has become a common occurrence. Neither the coaches nor the wrestlers have any knowledge of it being a banned substance, and it’s used frequently, especially in national competitions where there are no dope tests,” Jagdish said, adding that players gained temporarily from it, but were almost always adversely affected in the long term.

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