Russia, India among countries to lose Olympic spots over doping issues

london — Five nations, including Russia, whose doping records have risked weightlifting’s place on the Olympic schedule have been limited to just two athletes for the 2020 Tokyo Games by the sport’s governing body, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is effectively allowing Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus only two places each at Tokyo 2020 — as the new rules state that any nation with 20 or more doping violations from 2008 to 2020 will have just one man and one woman at the Games. Countries with 10-19 doping violations over that same period will be limited to two men and two women in Tokyo. At least nine more countries, including Bulgaria, Iran and India, who have won five weightlifting golds at the Commonwealth Games, fall into that category. There could be further sanctions, including being banned from the Olympics, or more nations penalised if there are further doping violations before the Olympic qualifying period ends in April 2020, the IWF said. The crackdown will benefit countries with less than 10 violations from 20082020 as they can send up to eight qualifiers each, split equally between men and women.

The new policy has been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and been welcomed by many nations.

“This is a monumental step forward for weightlifting and for athletes around the world,” USA Weightlifting chief executive Phil Andrews told Reuters. “This new qualification system is a huge step for clean sport.” —