According a report from Inside the Games, American weightlifter Martha “Mattie” Rogers is set to receive two silver medals from the 2017 Weightlifting World Championships after Albanian weightlifter Romela Begaj received an eight year doping ban resulting from testing during the event.
Over a year ago, it was first reported that Begaj — a multi-time European Championships medalist who served a previous doping ban from 2014 to 2016 — had tested positive from the 2017 WWC in Anaheim. At the time, Begaj’s “B” samples were yet to be tested, and her official suspension hadn’t been handed down.
Begaj has denied the allegations but reportedly will not take the matter further in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Though her name has yet to appear on the IWF’s sanctioned athletes page for this violation, the report indicates Begaj’s her eight-suspension from the IWF is imminent. This would officially move Rogers into silver medal position in both the snatch and total. Colombia’s Miyareth Mendoza would become the snatch gold medalist and move into third place in the total, up from fourth. Leydi Solís — also of Colombia, and the 2017 World Champion and — would move into bronze medal position in the snatch.
Earlier this year in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Rogers became the first American weightlifter since 1994 to win medals at consecutive World Championships when she won a bronze in the clean & jerk.
After over a year of waiting… can someone send me the silver medals in the mail or what #cleansport https://t.co/hDLzZWfkXX
— Mattie Rogers (@mattie_rogers) January 26, 2019
Rogers is one of America’s most accomplished active weightlifters, and it will be interesting to watch her progress and performances as qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gets into full swing.
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Featured image: @mattiecakesssss on Instagram
