Samim Fainzad was defeated 11-0 in the men’s -81kg category at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday. His sample was collected by the International Testing Agency (ITA) on the same day, following his loss to Austria's Wachid Borchashvili in his opening bout.

On Friday, he was placed on provisional suspension after the test "yielded an adverse analytical finding for metabolites of stanozolol, a substance not specified," according to the ITA.

In a video shared with Afghan media on Saturday, Fainzad explained that he was injured in training in Uzbekistan four months ago and was undergoing treatment.

"I'm an athlete, not a medical expert. How am I supposed to know if a drug contains steroids or could cause a positive result in a doping control?" he said.

For 21-year-old Fainzad, reaching the Paris Games was a dream come true as he is one of just six athletes from Afghanistan, a country ruled by the Taliban. In the past, Afghanistan was not included in the Games due to Taliban rule. This time, the country has returned to the Olympics., 

He is the only one who trained inside his Taliban-controlled country. Faizad is the only member of the team still living in Afghanistan. He follows a rigorous regime while navigating the challenges of living in a country mired in poverty, recovering from war, and governed by the Taliban. The young fighter is trained by his uncle, 36-year-old Ajmal Faizada, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics and will accompany him to Paris.

In regions of conflict or difficulty, it is common for athletes to train in other countries, even if they eventually compete under the same flag. This is also the case in Ukraine, among others. There are three men and three women in the team. The women will compete in athletics and cycling the Taliban don't recognize those women. The International Olympc Commitee said it had not consulted Taliban officials about the team and they were not invited to the games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Afghanistan from the Games in 1999, during the first period of Taliban rule from 1996 and 2001 when women were barred from sport. 

The country was reinstated after the Taliban were ousted by the post-9/11 invasion, but the Paris Games mark the first summer Olympics since they took back power in 2021.

Taliban government curbs have once again squeezed women out of sport, as well as secondary schools and universities, in what the United Nations describes as "gender apartheid". 

Though this time the nternational Olimpic ComMitee has invited a squad without consulting Taliban officials, who have not been invited to attend, instead working with the largely exiled national Olympic committee.

The team of three women and three men were chosen under a system ensuring all 206 nations are represented at the Games, in cases where athletes wouldn't otherwise qualify. Faizad won his spot in a Kabul tournament of more than a hundred competitors.