A major controversy has erupted in the world of para sports following the revelation that Shahana Hajiyeva, a Paralympic judo champion from Azerbaijan, has been banned for life after medical tests allegedly showed she has full eyesight….

Disqualifying her from competing in the visually impaired category.

Hajiyeva, 24, rose to international prominence after capturing gold at the Tokyo Paralympics in the visually impaired division.

Her meteoric rise began in 2019 when, as a teenager, she stunned the judo world by defeating China’s Paralympic champion Li Liqing at the Baku Grand Prix.
That victory signaled her arrival as a dominant force in parajudo, culminating in her Tokyo triumph.

But her competitive career came to an abrupt end earlier this month, just ahead of the World Para Judo Championships.
A medical reassessment reportedly found that Hajiyeva has full vision – effectively invalidating her eligibility to compete in para sports & prompting her lifetime ban.

Azerbaijan’s National Paralympic Committee (NPC) responded with a statement attributing her disqualification to evolving classification criteria rather than deliberate misconduct:

At the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Parajudo competitions were held in categories B1, B2 and B3.

However, in the run-up to the Paralympic Games in Paris and at the Games themselves, the number of categories was reduced, and competitions were organised in two new categories – J1 and J2.

They added that under the new guidelines, several eye conditions previously accepted in the J2 category no longer meet the updated criteria:

Despite the fact that Gadzhieva represented our country in the J2 category until 2024, due to the changes it became clear that she will no longer be able to compete in parajudo.

Medical testing ahead of the World Championships reportedly concluded that Hajiyeva has no visual impairment at all – an assessment that contradicted her previous eligibility and led to her being barred from all future para sports competition.

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