In a public disclosure published on their website, the International Weightlifting Federation has reported that seven athletes have been provisionally suspended following reanalysis of their testing samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Two-time Olympic champion Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan is among them, meaning his retested samples from both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics have come back positive.
It’s not certain at the moment what length ban Ilyin would receive if one or both of his suspensions are upheld, but previous history and IWF doping protocols indicate an eight-year ban is a possibility. It’s also a possibility — as outlined in section 10.7.4.1 of the IWF Anti-Doping Policy — that he would only receive one sanction because the lifters was informed of both violations at once.
The announcement comes less than a week after 10 lifters were provisionally suspended following positive retests from the 2012 London Olympic Games. The IWF had previously announced 10 retested samples from Beijing were positive, though only seven names were listed in their official disclosure.
The full list of positive Beijing retests is below:
Hripsime Khurshudyan (Armenia) (2012 London Olympics Bronze Medalist)
Alexandru Dudoglo (Moldova) (2008 Beijing Olympics 9th place)
Nadezda Evstyukhina (Russia) (2008 Beijing Olympics Bronze Medalist)
Nurcan Taylan (Turkey) (2004 Athens Olympics Gold Medalist, missed 2012 London Olympics due to doping suspension)
Marina Shainova (Russia) (2008 Beijing Olympics Silver Medalist)
Intigam Zairov (Azerbaijan) (2009 European Championships Silver Medalist)
Ilya Ilyin (Kazakstan) (2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics Gold Medalist)
Russian lifters Evstyukhina and Shainova’s positive retests had previously been reported by news outlet Ren.TV.
Each of the lifters in the disclosure tested positive for an anabolic agent. The full list of positives and the substances detected are listed below in a screenshot from the IWF disclosure.
Following the “serious consequences with regard to the reanalysis of the London 2012 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games samples,” the IWF has announced they’ll be dedicating a day of discussion to anti-doping matters at the upcoming Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Featured image: Ilya Ilyin’s Instagram, embedded below
