Five weightlifters, including two Olympic champions, have been provisionally suspended after retests of their samples from the 2012 London Olympics came back positive for doping, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said.
Ukraine’s Oleksiy Torokhtiy could now be stripped of the Olympic title he won in the 105kg category in London, while Azerbaijan’s Bulgaria-born Valentin Hristov could lose his bronze medal from the 56kg category.
“The International Olympic Committee [IOC] is responsible to decide about any consequences relating to the athletes’ participation in the 2012 London Olympic Games,” the federation said. “In all cases where it is determined that an anti-doping rule violation was committed, the responsibility to conduct results management will be transferred to the IWF in terms of consequences extending beyond the athletes’ Olympic Games participation.”
Photo: AP
Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Nurudinov, who came fourth in the 105kg category in London, Armenia’s Melanie Daluzyan and Belarus’ Mikalai Novikau were also suspended after the IOC’s re-analysis discovered adverse analytical findings, the federation said in a statement.
Nurudinov won the Olympic title in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, as well as the world title in Poland in 2013 and the gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta this year.
Weightlifting, which featured at the first modern Olympics in 1896, is under fire over widespread doping offenses and the IOC has threatened to remove it from the Paris 2024 Games if it fails to improve its record.
The sport remains on probation.
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