Three Olympic champion
weightlifters from China and eight other medalists stand to be stripped of
their titles after failing retests of their doping samples from the 2008
Olympics.
The International
Weightlifting Federation says the 11 tested positive for a range of banned
substances in the latest scandal to shake the sport, which is already
processing retests which caught numerous medalists from the 2008 and 2012
games. They are all provisionally suspended until the doping cases are
resolved.
The IWF said in a
statement on its website Wednesday that Chinese gold medalists Cao Lei, Liu
Chunhong and Chen Xiexia all tested positive for GHRP-2, which stimulates
growth hormone production, while Liu also tested positive for the stimulant
sibutramine.
The other eight
medalists include current world record holder Andrei Rybakou of Belarus, who
won silver in 2008. All tested positive for various anabolic steroids,
according to the IWF.
The other medalists are
Anastasia Novikova of Belarus, Kazakhstan's Maria Grabovetskaya and Irina
Nekrasova, Russia's Khadzhimurat Akkaev and Dmitry Lapikov, and Ukraine's
Natalya Davydova and Olha Korobka.
Four other weightlifters
from Beijing 20008 who did not win medals were also named as having failed
tests. They include Kazakhstan's Maiya Maneza and Belarus' Iryna Kulesha, both
of whom won medals in 2012 but not 2008 and are already suspended over retests
from 2012.
A further 10 lifters who
competed at the 2008 Olympics, including five medalists, had already been
suspended in June and July after failing an earlier wave of retests. One medal,
the silver won by Turkey's Sibel Ozkan in the women's 48-kilogram class, has
already been stripped.
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