Takano Athletics

Both the Indian and Iranian Weightlifting Federations will be allowed to compete in international competitions after they have paid stiff penalties as levied by the International Weightlifting Federation, the world governing body for the sport.

Both federations have been fined $500,000 each in order to keep their licenses as valid members of the I.W.F.

India worked out a deal whereby they would only have to pay $50,000 immediately in order to enter the South Asian Games which started last Friday in Bangladesh.  They will have to pay the rest in installments in order to maintain eligibility for the Commonwealth Games which India is hosting in New Delhi later in 2010.

Iran had three athletes test positive during the past calendar year and a fourth is currently pending.  Double Olympic gold medalist Hossen Rezazadeh is the representative for the Iranian federation and recently met with IWF president Tamas Ajan to negotiate the fine in lieu of a two year suspension of license.

The IWF rule provides that any nation with three athletes testing positive during any twelve month period must be suspended from international competition for a period of two years for the first violation.  This is the first time that the IWF has imposed such a heavy monetary fine in place of the suspension since the inception of the policy.

The IWF has had a tarnished past with respect to doping positives and since the 1988 Olympics has worked to clean up the doping situation.  The International Olympic Committee has warned sports governing bodies that if they do not take stringent action to eradicate doping, they may be removed from the competitive program of the Olympics.  Since all IOC member nations with the exception of the United States receive funding for the Olympic sports from their national sports ministries, the exclusion of the sport from the Games would mean the elimination of funding for that sport on a global scale.

The IWF has, in addition to imposing sanctions against offending athletes and their national federations, also instituted the procedure of testing athletes immediately before they compete in the Olympics.  This process worked remarkably well with only one doping positive of a weightlifter having been determined at the Beijing Games.

Furthermore each member nation must submit a list of eligible athletes well in advance of the Olympics and they are subject to unannounced testing at any time.

I can verify this as I was the assistant coach for the U.S. women’s team to the World’s Championships in Warsaw in 2002.  As soon as we had settled the team into a training camp in Hungary immediately prior to the competition, doping escorts representing the World Anti-Doping Agency showed up at our quarters to obtain a urine sample from one of our team members.  This was completely unannounced and unexpected.  Of course there was no violation as this athlete had been a resident at our U.S. Olympic Training Center and had undergone repeated testing for the several months leading up to this competition.

As it currently stands it appears as though the sport of weightlifting is taking whatever feasible measures are available to eliminate the use of illegal performance enhancing substances.