Not too long ago the sporting world was celebrating her achievement, but Paralympian Shahana Hajiyeva has now been banned for life from competing in her previous categories
A Paralympic gold medallist has been banned for life from their category after failing a disability classification test. Shahana Hajiyeva, who was a member of the Azerbaijani Paralympic team, won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
However, recent reports have claimed that she has since been banned from competing in her previous categories, after failing a medical classification test. The 25-year-old athlete won gold in Japan in the 48kg judo event, while also winning gold in the 48kg J2 category at the 2023 European Para Championships.
She did not participate in the recent 2024 Olympics in Paris, but was due to be in Astana, Kazakhstan for the World Parajudo Championships.
According to Prosport.az, she was deemed to have failed a medical classification test for the partially sighted judokas, before the competition in Kazakhstan. It determined that she did not have any vision restrictions that would prevent her from competing in Parajudo competitions for the visually impaired, resulting in her being given a lifelong ban…
