Five weightlifters suspended after London 2012 retesting

Five weightlifters have been provisionally suspended after retests from their London 2012 samples came back positive for doping, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said on Sunday.

Ukraine’s Oleksiy Torokhtiy could now be stripped of the gold medal he won in the 105-kg category in London, while Azerbaijan’s Valentin Hristov could lose his bronze medal from the 56-kg category.

The other suspended lifters are Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Nurudinov, who came fourth in the 105-kg in London, Armenia’s Melanie Daluzyan and Belarus’s Mikalai Novikau.

'The International Olympic Committee is responsible to decide about any consequences relating to the athletes’ participation in the 2012 London Olympic Games,' the IWF said.

'In all cases where it is determined that an Anti-Doping Rule Violation was committed, the responsibility to conduct results management will be transferred to the IWF in terms of consequences extending beyond the athletes’ Olympic Games participation.'

Nurudinov won the Olympic title in Rio in 2016, as well as the world title in Poland in 2013 and the gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta earlier this year.

After a recent massive usage of doping, weightlifting is currently under fire, with the International Olympic Committee threatening to remove the sport from the Paris 2024 Olympics if it fails to improve its record.

Because of this, the IWF has adopted a tougher anti-doping policy this year, under which repeat-offender nations can be banned outright from the Olympics.