Dominican sprinter Luguelin Santos, 31, has been stripped of his gold medal from the 2012 World Junior Championships and handed a three-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for age-manipulation violations, as announced on Friday.
Santos secured the 400 meters gold at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona. However, the AIU disclosed in a statement that Santos had confessed to competing in the age-group championships with a falsified date of birth—Nov. 12, 1993—when, in reality, he was born on that date in 1992. According to the 2012 Competition Rules, junior athletes were required to be aged 18 or 19 on Dec. 31 of the competition year to participate in the World Juniors 2012, making Santos ineligible.
The AIU stated, “Thus, he was ineligible to participate in the World Juniors 2012.”
Santos, a two-time Youth Olympic champion, had also clinched a silver medal in the 400m at the 2012 London Olympics. Despite the severe consequences imposed on him, the AIU clarified that, unlike doping violations, there is no basis to annul his Olympic result, as the event was not age-group specific and no violation occurred in that context.
Brett Clothier, Head of the AIU, emphasized, “Unlike with sanctions for doping violations … there is no basis on which to annul his Olympic result as that was not an age-group event and no violation was committed there.”
The stripping of Santos’s gold medal and the subsequent ban underscores the commitment of athletics authorities to maintaining the integrity of competitions and upholding fair play in sports. Age manipulation not only tarnishes the spirit of the sport but also places an unfair advantage on athletes who deceive the system.
