Dominican Olympic medal winner Luguelin Santos admitted in a written statement that he presented a fake birth certificate to compete in the 2010 Singapore Youth Games. The birth certificate made him a year younger than his real age.
Luguelin Santos was recently disqualified from participating in the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador taking place this June 2023 after the confirmation of the presenting of the fake birth certificate.
Then unknown Luguelin Santos made history when he won the 400m in the Singapore Youth Games in 2010. The athlete would next win silver in the 2012 London Olympic Games in the same event. In 2013, he won bronze at the 2013 IAAF World Championship. In 2015 he won the gold medal in the 400 meters event at the Pan American Games.
Luguelin Santos was also a member of the Dominican team that won silver in the 4×400 in Tokyo 2020 (Lidio Andrés Feliz, Marileidy Paulino, Anabel Medina and Alexander Ogando (with Luguelín Santos as substitute in the qualifying round).
The president of the Dominican Olympic Committee told Diario Libre that they have not received any note or email from the World Athletics Federation on the subject of Luguelin Santos.
Luguelin Santos became one of the best track athletes in the world under his long time coach Jose Ludwig Rubio. Rubio is at present involved in a major controversy after the Dominican Athletics Federation banned him from being part of the Dominican delegation to Olympic, Pan American and Central American events.
His brother Juander Santos has been one of the most vocal against the Athletics Federation decision to not include Rubio in the coaching staff. Rubio has 10 athletes qualified to compete in the El Salvador Games.
Luguelin Santos himself made known that there has been an international investigation into his participation in the 2010 Youth Games. He admitted he set a bad example and hoped it would serve as a lesson for all up-and-coming athletes to always play fair.
“I was wrong back then and for that I apologize to the entire Dominican society, but with equal pride, I will continue to defend the best interests of our athletes and our country,” he concluded.
Without the intention of evading his own responsibility, he said he was 18 years at the time and had followed guidelines set by those that were directing his sports career back then. He did not name the persons.
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
Hoy
Diario Libre
19 June 2023