Beijing 2008: Eleven to lose medals after failed retests

Eleven weightlifters are in danger of being stripped of their medals after failing retests of their Beijing 2008 doping samples.

One of them, China’s Liu Chunhong won gold in the 69kg snatch at the Olympics.

The other two – Cao Lei and Chen Xiexia – are among the Olympic champions who failed their various tests.

The 11 medallists tested positive for a range of banned substances, according to the International Weightlifting Federation.

The other eight medallists to test positive are from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Andrei Rybakou of Belarus, who holds the 85kg world record with a 187kg snatch and won silver in 2008, tested positive in the retests.

Others Olympic contestants that also to failed are:

1. Anastasia Novikova – Belarus

2. Maria Grabovetskaya – Kazakhstan

3. Irina Nekrasova – Russia

4. Khadzhimurat Akkaev – Russia

5. Dmitry Lapikov – Russia

6. Natalya Davydova – Ukraine

7. Olha Korobka – Ukraine.

They are all provisionally suspended until the cases are resolved.

Four other weightlifters from Beijing 2008, who did not win medals, also failed retests.

An earlier set of retests in June and July led to suspensions for 10 weightlifters that competed at the 2008 Olympics, including five medallists.

The weightlifting at this month’s Rio Olympics was hit by doping, with Kyrgyzstan’s Izzat Artykov losing his bronze medal after testing positive.

A Mongolian weightlifter who did not make the podium also failed a drugs test.

Polish 2012 Olympic champion Adrian Zielinski was sent home after testing positive for nandrolone.

Recently, the Court for the Arbitration of Sport [CAS] upheld the decision made by the International Paralympic Committee [IPC] to impose a blanket ban on Russia.

Russia was banned from competing in next month’s Paralympic Games in Rio after they lost their appeal on Tuesday.

The Paralympics begin on 7 September.

It added that the Russian Paralympic Committee did not file any evidence contradicting the facts put forward by the IPC.

The IPC made the decision after the McLaren report detailed a Russian state-sponsored doping programme.

The ban meant Russian Paralympians will compete only on the screen.

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