Narayan Thakur still remembers the posters that stretched from his home in Delhi along several kilometres to the main road, celebrating the para-athlete for winning gold in the Asian Games of 2018. He received a hero’s welcome at the airport and an in-person meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi, who lauded him alongside other winners.
But his moment of joy and national recognition was short-lived. Soon after his return to India he was accused of doping, leaving him at risk of losing his hard-earned medal. Overnight, all the posters celebrating him disappeared. They were replaced by newspaper articles accusing him of taking a banned, performance-enhancing substance, while the life changing amount of Rs 10m (£78,500) that he was set to receive in prize money from the government was frozen.
