Drugs shame of Beijing athletes who won gold
Print Edition
THREE Chinese female weightlifters who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been disqualified following a re-analysis of their drug tests, the International Olympic Committee said.
Cao Lei, the 75kg champion, Chen Xiexia, the 48kg gold medallist, and Liu Chunhong, who won the 69kg category, were stripped of their titles on Thursday.
The women, aged between 31 and 34, tested positive for the banned human growth hormone GHRP-2.
The Chinese Olympic Committee said yesterday that it supported the IOC’s decision.
“The COC strongly condemns these three test-failed athletes whose behavior goes against sports morals and the Olympic Spirit,” it said in a statement.
“The COC respects the IOC’s verdict and will launch a thorough investigation into the positive doping results,” it added.
The statement reaffirmed China’s zero tolerance policy to doping and said a series of measures had been adopted to keep the country’s athletes clean.
“The anti-doping campaign is a complicated and formidable task and needs longtime and consistent efforts. The COC will cooperate with the IOC in protecting the purity of the Olympic Movement,” the statement said.
The Chinese Weightlifting Association also released a statement yesterday, saying it will launch a full investigation into the case.
The International Weightlifting Federation is taking steps to rid the sport of a drug-taking culture that has made it one of the most notorious Olympic events.
Last summer, it barred serial performance-enhancing offenders of Russia and Bulgaria from competing at the Rio Games.
A total of eight athletes from the Beijing and London Olympics were disqualified on Thursday as part of an ongoing series of retests from 2008 and 2012, according to AFP.
Belarus shot-putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk, who was a bronze medallist in Beijing, had tested positive for the steroid turinabol.
She had only been promoted to bronze medal position after compatriot Natallia Mikhnevich failed an earlier dope test.
Another Belarusian, hammer thrower Darya Pchelnik, lost her fourth place at the 2008 Games.
Three non-medal weightlifters from the London Games — Sibel Simsek of Turkey, Intigam Zairov of Azerbaijan, and Armenia’s Norayr Vardanyan — were also disqualified.
The IOC is re-analysing 1,243 samples from Beijing and London using testing techniques not available at the time. By the end of December, the number of positive tests from the re-analyzed samples had reached 101.
Weightlifting accounts for the bulk of positive tests, followed by athletics, wrestling and cycling.
The results of the new tests will feature during discussions in April to map out the program of future summer Olympics.
“We will have to look at the results in detail, connect each sport with each country and see if it is a problem specific to each country,” IOC President Thomas Bach said earlier. “And then we will study the situation with the World Anti-Doping Agency.”
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