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Thai quartet Sarat Sombradit takes 10 servings of egg whites for breakfast and trains for 4 hours a day. He is deprived of his smartphone in the evening while he is actively preparing for the world championships.
However, the 25-year-old has a problem: Thailand is facing a self-imposed weightlifting ban, which means his host may not be home next month at the World Championships in New York. Pattaya.
With nine athletes suspended as a result of doping tests, Thailand is facing a crisis in its most successful Olympic sport, less than a year before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
"I am fighting for those who have been arrested," Sarat said defiantly after his second exercise of the day. "There are only a few of us left."
Thanks to five Olympic gold medals won since 2004 by women, weightlifting has become a rare success story in this country of Southeast Asia, where athletes of ordinary citizens living in isolated rural areas become celebrities.
The dream turned into a setback last year, when Thailand embarked on a global campaign of anti – doping weightlifting that was likely to be rejected from the Olympics.
Nine Thais, including current Olympic champions Sukanya Srisurat and Supita Tanasan, proved positive after the last world championships in November, with Thailand again in the overall standings.
This prompted Thailand to voluntarily impose a suspension of its participation in the tournaments, excluding its quartet of the next world championships in Pattaya and the next Olympic Games.
However, the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Federation wants inactive athletes to compete at the world championships and have the opportunity to compete at the Olympics.
The International Federation will make a final decision next month, following calls for action following a long series of doping incidents.
Nine countries, including China 's strong, were suspended after rebadyses of the 2008 and 2012 Olympics that had revealed that dozens of athletes were active.
In a busy training camp in Chiang Mai, where cups cover the walls and people lift weights in lycra, Sarat insists that his teammates have been unfairly targeted.
"We were in a team, we went to the Olympics together, we ate and trained in one way, why are my results not positive?", He said, referring to a conspiracy against the Thai team.
"If you manage to reduce the size of the Thai team, your chances are greater."
But he admitted that a sport that suffered from a doping-related injury needed a clean-up campaign: "The strength must come from you and your intention to do the exercise. . "
Men and women sleep in the elevators' residence near the gym and eat three high-protein meals a day. Around 9:30 pm, trainers reserve their smartphones to ensure a good night's sleep.
Thailand reports that the arrested athletes used a painkiller from a former trainer with traces of the activated steroid.
Thailand's honorary president, Entarat Yudpangtwe, is also skeptical about the country's uniqueness, as many athletes have been tested before sending their samples to a more rigorous second round.
"We teach them a lot, do not drink, do not eat, do not inject anything (illegal) Where is justice?", He said in his office in Bangkok.
He found that most pastoralists were rural and that the sport gave them hope of getting out of poverty and that the scandal gave them the feeling of being "desperate".
"It will kill them," he said of possible sanctions.
The International Federation did not answer questions on the issue, knowing that last year it had entrusted test management to an international testing agency based in Switzerland.
The incident thwarted Thai athletes who started winning medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when the women started the competition.
Khasaraborn Sota became the first woman to win a bronze medal in Sydney, increasing the popularity of the sport in a country that favors football, boxing, badminton and golf.
Thai elevators receive gains from sponsors and government funds. "We became more comfortable – I bought a house for my mother – most of the team members have financial problems," said Giraborne Nantawong, 20.
Like Sarat, the quartet has said that its main goal now is to "preserve our dignity through good performances, and whatever happens, this sport will remain".
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