Weightlifting: Russia gains and loses in Olympic doping chaos
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[June 21, 2016]
By Brian Oliver
LONDON (Reuters) - Russia could gain
three weightlifting gold medals stripped from other nations'
competitors because of doping positives reaching back as far as two
Olympics, but could also lose quota places at the Rio Games because
of its own team's transgressions.
The governing International Weightlifting Federation meets in
Tibilisi this week to tackle challenges arising from the use of new
technology in reviewing urine and blood samples taken at past
tournaments. The disputes mirror a doping scandal shaking world
athletics that has led to a Rio ban for Russian athletes.
Monday was the deadline for the IWF to tell nations how many places
they would have at the Rio Games in August.
"We have contacted all federations and given them their Olympic
quotas, but they are subject to legal procedures and other
decisions," said Attila Adamfi, director general of the IWF.
Nations with four or more lifters testing positive within the
two-year Olympic qualification period can have one or more team
places taken away from them. Bulgaria has already been banned from
Rio for having 11 lifters test positive for anabolic steroids last
year, and Romania and Uzbekistan have lost one place each.
 The most popular weightlifter in the world, Ilya Ilyin from
Kazakhstan, stands to lose both his Olympic gold medals from 2008
and 2012, and the chance to win a third, which he was expected to do
this summer.
Ilyin tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol when
samples from London 2012 were retested. On Monday it was announced
that he also tested positive for stanozolol in 2008, again on
reanalysis carried out by the International Olympic Committee.
Ilyin, a multiple world record holder who has nearly 400,000 fans on
social media, had attributed his many successes partly to his diet,
first of horse meat then, after 2012, to his newly adopted
vegetarianism.
Others named on Monday as 2008 positives included three already
banned for other doping infringements. Nurcan Taylan, the 2004
Olympic champion at 48 kg, tested positive in 2011 and was banned
for four years. Russia’s Marina Shainova, a silver medalist at 58 kg
in Beijing, was suspended for two years in 2013, and Intigam Zairov
of Azerbaijan is banned until 2023 after twice testing positive, in
2013 and 2015.
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Russia's Natalya Zabolotnaya lifts on the women's 75Kg group A
weightlifting competition at the ExCel venue at the London 2012
Olympic Games August 3, 2012. REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler

Three other Kazakhs, all women, were provisionally suspended last
week after testing positive in 2012.
Kazakhstan was also among the list of offenders at the 2015 World
Championships, where nearly half of competitors were tested and 24
returned positives. The most high-profile offender was Russia’s
Aleksey Lovchev, who had broken two world records in winning the
men’s super-heavyweight title (+105kg). He has been suspended for
four years.
One of the complicating factors is whether to regard positives
announced in the past week, but dating back four or eight years, as
2016 failures. If that happened, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and
Belarus would have most to lose.
The good news for Russia is that three of their lifters who took
silver in London are expected now to be awarded the gold stripped
from rivals: Aleksandr Ivanov (men 94kg), Svetlana Tsarukayeva
(women 63kg) and Natalya Zabolotnaya (women 75kg).
The man who stands to take Ilyin's 2008 title is Poland's Szymon
Kolecki, who was himself banned from the 2004 Games for a doping
infringement.
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