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The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said it had asked the
national wrestling federation to drop the 31-year-old from its
Olympic team after he tested positive for a banned substance
following the African/Oceania qualifier in Algiers.
India-born Kumar was to compete in the 66-kg division of
Greco-Roman wrestling in Rio.
His coach, Kostya Ermakovich, told Reuters that Kumar, who was
training in Germany, was devastated and had no idea how he had
failed the test.
"You should see how upset he is," Ermakovich told Reuters by
telephone. "He’s really depressed. He’s 100 percent sure he
didn’t do anything wrong.
"He's got lawyers to fight this for him.
"We're going to appeal because we don’t know what’s going on."
The AOC said both Kumar's A and B samples had tested positive
but declined to name the substance.
"The international federation, United World Wrestling, has
advised they will reallocate his position in the 66kg division
to the next best ranked NOC," the committee said in a statement.
He had 30 days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,
the AOC added.
Kumar emigrated to Australia in 2010 and first competed for his
adopted country in March.
Ermakovich said he was uncertain what Kumar had tested positive
for but insisted his wrestler was not a drugs cheat.
"I'm shattered by this ... The only thing he said he was taking
was protein shakes," he said.
"I don’t need to know about any of these things. But I said to
all my athletes, 'you should never take proteins or supplements
or anything'. I warned them all the time.
"Vinod's English is really poor. Maybe he couldn't read the
labels properly or (the protein shakes) didn't have a full
description of their ingredients."
Melbourne-based Kumar met Reuters for an interview at his home
in May and said he owed friends who had helped finance his
Olympic bid up to A$15,000 ($11,500).
Both his parents had died since he left India, his mother two
weeks before the interview.
"Sometimes I'm feeling very upset, thinking I am here and I have
no money, nothing here," he told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing
by Peter Rutherford)
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