Top four badminton players who were banned for doping in 2024

Even with strict norms, there have been cases of doping in the beautiful game.

Doping is when an athlete uses a banned substance or drugs to enhance their performance and provide themselves an unfair advantage over the rest of the field. Athletes knowingly or unknowingly consume these substances. There have been many such instances of doping being found in sports.

Doping is mostly common in sports like Athletics, Swimming, and weightlifting. To stop doping, there is an organization named the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which was established on 10 November 1999. WADA has created a World Anti-Doping Code which is implemented by more than 650 sports organizations around the world.

Also Read: Top five badminton tournaments to watch out for in 2025

Wada was co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee to prevent the use of drugs and other illegal substances that can provide an unfair advantage to the athlete.

Apart from doping athletes are also banned for whereabouts failure meaning failing to report the necessary information that an athlete needs to provide to the doping officer in a particular period.

In 2024 four players were banned by the BWF 2024. Two of them were banned due to failure to locate and the other two were banned due to consumption of a banned substance. Let’s look at those four badminton players.

Ahmad Mahyuddin bin Haji Abas (Brunei)

Ahmad Mahyuddin bin Haji Abas, a shuttler from a small country Brunei was found guilty of breaking anti-doping rules and was banned from all badminton-related activities. He was suspended until June 24, 2027. The National Badminton Association of Brunei Darussalam (PBKBD) revealed the athlete’s identity on their official Instagram account.

The violation was found during an out-of-competition test by the Brunei Darussalam Anti-Doping Committee (BDADC) after the 2023 Southeast Asian Games.

Saleh Sangtarash (Iran)

Iranian player Saleh Sangtarash was suspended by the Iran National Anti-Doping Organisation until April 8, 2027, for the Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). Although the exact reasons are unclear he was handed a ban this year by Badminton World Federation.

Also Read: Full list of players who have withdrawn from Malaysia Open 2025

Mathias Christiansen (Denmark)

The Danish Sports Federation’s Doping Board has banned Mathias Christiansen, a mixed doubles player from Denmark, for whereabouts failures as per the rules of Anti-Doping Denmark. Mathias Christiansen who previously had qualified for the Paris Olympics with his partner Alexandra BØje had to withdraw from the tournament.

He has been served a ban until 21 July 2025.”Whereabouts” refers to the player’s reporting daily to the particular anti-doping organization for a while. Christiansen received the ban as he had committed three mistakes in one year.

“I am happy that there has now been a clarification in the matter and that I have been given the smallest possible quarantine that could be given,” Christiansen said after receiving the ban. He further said that he had no intention of cheating and he will now focus on his training

Pramod Bhagat (India)

Indian star para shuttler Pramod was handed a ban for 18 months for whereabouts failure by the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS). The Badminton World Federation suspended Pramod Bhagat until 1 September 2025. The Tokyo Paralympic Champion Pramod Bhagat who qualified for the Paris Olympics had to withdraw from the tournament and was not able to defend his title.

Pramod played in the Men’s Singles SL3 category (athletes competing standing with a lower limb impairment and balance problems walking or running) and has won seven world championship gold medals.

Pramod appealed against this decision but his plea was rejected and unfortunately, he had to miss the Paralympics. Just like Mathias Pramod also banned for three whereabouts failures in 12 months. Athletes need to provide relevant details like training schedule, location, etc to the doping officer. If any athlete fails to provide the relevant information they receive a whereabouts failure. Three of these whereabout failure leads to suspension.

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