India's aspiration to host the 2036 Olympics is undermined by its poor anti-doping record. Comment.

WADA's 2024 Testing Figures show India returning 260 adverse findings from 7,113 samples — roughly a 3.6% positivity rate, the highest among major testing nations [1]. Since Olympic hosting rights turn on credibility as much as stadiums, this record is a genuine liability, though recent statutory reforms make it a recoverable one.

How the record weakens the bid

• Credibility deficit: a persistently high positivity rate [1], sustained across years, makes India's clean-sport assurances hard to sell to the IOC.
• Institutional distrust: WADA's Operation Carousel found NADA under-testing its Registered Testing Pool and poorly monitoring athlete whereabouts, surfacing 12 adverse findings and 97 whereabouts failures involving 70 athletes [2]. Host evaluation weighs regulator competence, not intent.
• Reputational spillover: pre-Games positives spanning athletics, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu and judo before the 2026 Commonwealth and Asian Games force squad withdrawals and erode soft power precisely when India is auditioning as host; world athletics' integrity unit has placed India in its highest doping-risk bracket.
• Perverse incentives: large cash rewards tied to medals nudge athletes and coaches toward shortcuts, converting isolated lapses into a tolerated culture.
• Capacity mismatch: NADA remains thinly staffed, and testing volumes, though nearly doubled since 2019, trail leading sporting nations.

Why the aspiration is not forfeited

• The National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 gave NADA statutory footing, implementing the UNESCO Convention and providing a legal framework for testing, enforcement and adjudication [3]; the Amendment Act, 2025 further aligned dispute resolution with the WADA Code [4].
• The National Dope Testing Laboratory regained WADA accreditation in 2021 and was later approved to manage Athlete Biological Passports — restoring analytical capacity [5].
• The National Sports Governance Act, 2025 creates a National Sports Board, a National Sports Tribunal, mandatory ethics codes, and links central funding to recognition — the accountability lever federations lacked [6].

India's doping record is today the weakest link in its 2036 pitch, but it is an institutional problem with institutional remedies. Fully staffing NADA, shifting rewards toward long-term athlete development over one-off medal bounties, and grassroots anti-doping education can convert a credibility risk into a demonstration of governance maturity — the surest foundation for hosting the Games.