Why is Olympian gymnast Dipa Karmakar serving a 21-month doping suspension

India’s top gymnast Dipa Karmakar, a Rio 2016 Olympian and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, has been serving a 21-month ban after testing positive for a prohibited substance.

The International Testing Agency (ITA) conducted an out-of-competition test on Dipa Karmakar on October 11, 2021, on behalf of FIG - the global governing body for Gymnastics. The sample returned positive for higenamine, which is on the list of substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). 

Higenamine is a stimulant generally found in weight management products and dietary supplements among others.

The 29-year-old Dipa Karmakar's suspension started from the date of her sample collection and will conclude on July 10, 2023. The initial ban was lengthier but was reduced by three months after the Indian gymnast accepted the doping report.

Dipa Karmakar, who hails from Tripura, became the first Indian female gymnast to win a bronze medal at a Commonwealth Games. The medal came at the 2014 Glasgow CWG. The following year, Karmakar clinched an unprecedented bronze for India at the Asian championships in Hiroshima, Japan.

At Rio 2016, Karmakar became the first female gymnast to represent India at the Olympics. She missed out on an Olympic medal by a whisker after finishing fourth in the vault gymnastics event.

In a statement, Dipa Karmakar claimed that she had unknowingly ingested the banned substance and could not determine its source.

“Today marks the end of one of the longest battles I have fought for myself and my career,” Dipa Karmakar said. “It has been distressful to not know how the substances entered my body… Gymnastics is all I have, and I would never do anything which would bring myself or my country into disrepute.

“I am happy that the matter has been amicably resolved…Cannot wait to get back on the floor!” Karmakar concluded.