Neeraj Chopra joins fight against doping, to launch athlete awareness campaign with IOA

NEW DELHI: Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has taken the lead in fighting the menace of doping that plagues Indian sports with his foundation inking an MOU with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to launch a campaign that aims to educate athletes against it.

At the IOA athletes forum here on Friday, Chopra delivered a video message announcing the initiative between Neeraj Chopra Foundation and the IOA.

"I have seen how kids want to enhance performance by doping to win big medals. But from my story, I can tell you it took me 10 years to get to the Olympic medal," he said.

"You need patience to achieve something in sports. I am seeing that it has come down in today's kids. They want to achieve things quickly, cross 80m in one year. It takes five years to do that.

"Sometimes kids take supplements which might be contaminated. When I was a junior, whenever I heard about doping bans, I used to get so surprised by the time lost. I had promised myself then that I would never take this route," he added.

India has been topping the World Anti Doping Agency's annual list of highest dope offenders for the last three years.