According to new reports from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the 2018 Asian Games Wrestling Champion Orkhon Purevdorj was found to have been using anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs during her run up to the championship match which she went on to win.
The OCA released a statement in late August 2018 reporting the fact that Purevdorj was discovered to have committed and anti-doping violation during the in competition testing conducted throughout the month of August. She was disqualified for the next session of the Asian Games, a session that she had won her way into by competing at the highest levels during the preliminary rounds.
On top of that, the OCA is also reporting that her wins and her competition results going to be vacated from the competition and she will not be allowed to continue to compete until the preliminary testing protocols have moved through the standard testing protocols to confirm this test is in fact positive.
The anabolic steroids that are alleged to have been found in the urine sample provided by Purevdorj have been identified as stanozolol (Winstrol). A German organization is responsible for handling the independent testing for the OCA, and organization known as Professional Worldwide Controls. This is the company that the OCA trusts most with the urine sample and performance enhancing drug testing for the 2018 Asian Games and a company that the OCA has worked with quite a bit in the past as well.
Up until this new allegation and the provision every suspension, Purevdorj had been a bit of a rising star in the wrestling community and a big draw for this version of the Asian Games.
Purevdorj, just 24 years old, had been dominating the competition on her way to winning the gold medal in the 62 kg freestyle wrestling category. She had been outclassing her opponents every step of the way, something that wasn’t all that unexpected considering the fact that she had represented Mongolia at the 2016 Summer Olympic games and had fared quite well there – though she only came away with the bronze medal that those Olympics.
In 2017, Purevdorj was able to give herself a bit of redemption. While competing at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships hosted in Paris last year she was able to dominate the competition and went on to grab the gold medal in this same weight class.
Most of the industry experts and those in the know throughout the sport of wrestling had considered Purevdorj to be one of the brightest stars in a sport that doesn’t garner all that much international attention outside of the Summer Olympics. A rare combination of size and power, Purevdorj was able to combine technical know-how and impeccable strategy with flawless execution that made her a real force in the ring.
As of right now, Purevdorj is under a provision every suspension and unable to continue to compete at any sanctioned event. If the sample is confirmed to have been tainted with anabolic steroids the odds are good she will receive a four year suspension. This suspension would hold her out of competition until she was 28 years old and would compel her to miss the next upcoming Summer Olympics that are scheduled to be held in 2020.
The next time Purevdorj would be able to compete at a Summer Olympics would be in 2024 and she would be 34 years old.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that Purevdorj would pursue an appeal to knock down this suspension, particularly if she has serious aspirations about competing at the next Olympic events. She also was the first freestyle wrestler to have failed a performance-enhancing drug test at these games. A Russian athlete was disqualified after testing positive as well.