The Sports Administration and Chinese Taipei’s Olympic Committee are still waiting for the results of a second doping test on a second Taiwanese weightlifter before they take any action, local media reports said yesterday.
The news came after female weightlifter Lin Tzu-chi (林子琦) was suspended from competition on Tuesday because of an abnormal doping test.
Sports Administration officials yesterday confirmed the development, saying that one of the nation’s male weightlifters also had an abnormal test result.
The three male members of the weightlifting team are Chen Shih-chieh (陳士杰), Pan Chien-hung (潘建宏) and Tang Chi-chung (唐啟中).
As of press time last night, team members and officials were still waiting for the outcome of a second test to come back from the IOC-certified Mitsubishi Kagaku Bio-Clinical Lab in Japan.
The testing was administered in accordance with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) regulations, sports officials said.
Lin was suspended after she was found to have high levels of a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid, which is related to male hormones and is a banned performance-enhancing drug, officials said.
Anabolic-androgenic steroids and related male hormone drugs have been favored by weightlifting athletes in the past because they add body weight and increase muscle strength.
However, the use of such drugs can have adverse side effects, such as the development and enhancement of male characteristics in female athletes, including the growth of facial and body hair, deepening of the voice, a reduction in breast size, menstruation disruption and infertility.
“The ban against these drugs was imposed by WADA to ensure a level playing field for everyone, but it also served to protect the athletes, due to the many adverse side effects, which could cause irreparable damage to an athlete’s body,” weightlifting coach Tsai Wen-yi (蔡溫義) said.
During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Taiwanese weightlifters Chen Juei-lien (陳瑞蓮), Wu Mei-yi (吳美儀) and Chen Po-fu (陳柏甫) were suspended for abnormal doping tests.
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