One of Nigeria’s athletes at the Paris Olympics has been disqualified following a positive drug test.
Nigerian boxer Cynthia Ogunsemilore has been removed from the women’s tournament after testing positive for a banned substance. The International Testing Agency (ITA) announced on Saturday that the 22-year-old African Games lightweight champion tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic commonly used to mask other performance-enhancing drugs.
The positive result was confirmed from a sample collected on July 25. According to the ITA, Ogunsemilore has been provisionally suspended pending further investigation, in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code and the IOC Anti-Doping Rules for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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Ogunsemilore was set to compete in the round of 16 on Monday as the fourth seed in the women’s 60-kilogram category. A rising star, she had recently won the African Games title and secured a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
This marks the second doping case at the Paris Olympics. On Friday, the ITA announced that Iraqi judoka Sajjad Sehen had tested positive for two anabolic steroids.
With Ogunsemilore’s disqualification, Nigeria’s sole boxing representative in Paris will be Adams, competing in the men’s heavyweight 92kg category. Adams will aim to break the 28-year-old record, as Nigeria’s last boxing medal was won by Donkan Dokiwari, who secured bronze in the super heavyweight category at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.