Rashid Ramzi is the reason behind my complete lack of faith in any sportsman who even feigns to constitute the Bahrain team. Let me take you back: August 19th, 2008, at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium, we were all keenly anticipating the highlight of the Olympics – the final of the men’s 1,500-metre race. The event, however, transpirates into a flagrant act of treachery.
Ramzi comfortably takes the lead and crosses the finish line almost effortlessly. As a result, the suspicions of James Nolan reverberate in my mind: “He’s chock-full of performance-enhancing drugs.”
It was three years prior that Nolan first confided in me this suspicion, right after Ramzi, formerly known as Rachid Khoula born in Morocco, made a significant entry into world athletics at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki by triumphing in both the 800m and 1,500-meter races.
Nolan, then Ireland’s premier 1,500m athlete, had failed to reach the finals in Helsinki, beaten by Ramzi. Ramzi had been a rather unremarkable runner in Morocco until he heeded a teammate’s advice, acquired Bahraini nationality in 2001, joined their military and underwent a name change as a part of the process.
Recognising Ramzi’s potential talent, Bahrain furnished him with all the resources he required and complete autonomy over his training routines – no matter how questionable. The frightening truth is that he was alarmingly close to escaping detection. Without the intervention of cycling, Ramzi may have effortlessly evaded justice.
While performing drug tests at the 2008 Tour de France, testers discovered that athletes had switched from the conventional erythropoietin (EPO) to the newly adapted continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (Cera). This modernised version of the blood-enhancer was more potent, lasted longer, and was harder to detect in drug tests. Because Cera is a larger substance than EPO, it is primarily blocked from the kidneys, leaving no trace in the urine.
In the first month of 2008, the anaemia and chronic kidney disease medication, Cera, got the green light for use under the commercial label Mircera. As if transfixed by its historical propensity for such substances, professional biking was swift to partake, leading to tangible signs of Mircera in the waste sample of Italian athlete Riccardo Ricco during the early 2008 Tour.
In reality, bad luck played a role in Ricco’s misfortune. His capture was more incidental than planned, which in turn guided testers towards what they were looking for. On hearing of this, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) thought it wise to uphold their commitment, which led them to commence testing on an exclusive group of 948 samples from Beijing as of January 2009. Tests focused on possible usage of Cera across sports like athletics, swimming, cycling, and rowing.
Activity requiring high stamina, in other words, and among the tests resulted in six positive returns, including Ramzi. He was forced to forfeit his gold medal, marking a distinctive fact in Olympic history.
Ramzi certainly wasn’t the sole offender. Ruqaya Al-Ghasra, a native to Bahrain and the nation’s first woman to participate in the Olympics in 2004, repeating her performance in Beijing in 2008, joined his ranks. By 2010, Al-Ghasra was also found guilty of drug misuse, resulting in a two-year ban.
El Hassan El-Abbassi and Sadik Mikhou, both born in Morocco before swearing loyalty to Bahrain, had similar fates. The country, a Gulf Island with no background of athletics and a population of nearly 1.5 million people, was where El-Abbassi ran the marathon and Mikhou took part in the 1,500m race in the Tokyo Olympics. Shortly after, they both were found guilty of receiving homologous blood transfusions. With Mikhou’s prior positive test in 2018, Bahrain’s athletics drew the attention of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
The narrative takes us ultimately to Salwa Eid Naser, who was seemingly mixed up in the revelation that unfolded on Thursday concerning the AIU’s charge notice against the Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) for “major anti-doping rule breaches” and “past violations of the World Athletics anti-doping rules,” just 8 months ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Naser, born as Ebelechukwu Agbapuonwu in Nigeria, chose to represent Bahrain in 2014. She clinched the title of the World Championship 400m in Doha five years later, recording her win in 48.14 seconds. This was the third best time in history, surpassed only by East Germany’s Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvilova of former Czechoslovakia, both of whom ran during the notorious early 1980s doping era.
Despite not proposing an absolute prohibition, the AIU restricted Bahrain to participating with only 10 athletes in Paris and at next year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. The BAA pledged to invest roughly $7.3 million over the next four years to combat doping and promote integrity within Bahrain’s athletic scene.
Of the ten competitors who represented Bahrain in Paris, Winfred Mutile Yavi and Naser both achieved podium finishes. Yavi, originally from Kenya, topped the women’s 3,000m steeplechase with an Olympic record of 8:52.76. Meanwhile, Naser secured a silver medal in the women’s 400m, recording a seasonal best of 48.53. In this race, Rhasidat Adeleke came in fourth.
Naser, now 26 years old, underwent a two-year ban for violating anti-doping regulations in June 2021. She had missed three tests within a year, an act described as “undeniably negligent and cannot be excused” by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which endorsed her ban on appeal.
In addition to Naser’s suspension, Bahrain was also penalised with a ban from all other World Athletics Series events for 12 months from June 1st, 2024. The reason for the timing of the AIU’s announcement and the selection of the 10 athletes that were allowed to participate in Paris remain unclear.
Naser is still eligible to compete throughout the current season, including the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Poland on Sunday. Here she will be joined by the two other Olympic medal achievers from Paris – Gold medallist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic and Poland’s bronze winner, Natalia Kaczmarek.
Adeleke is set to compete again after coming in fourth in Paris, undoubtedly aware of the week’s headlines. When questioned about Naser’s participation following the Olympic finals in Paris, she maintained an indifferent stance.
She proclaimed, “Each sportsperson is different”, asserting that her focus is solely on giving her utmost performance. “I push myself in training, I ensure I put in the hard yards, and it is my hope that every other competitor does similarly.”
However, such a belief seems implausible in Bahrain. The cause of this incredulity rests on Rashid Ramzi.