Tamas Ajan and Nicu Vlad, former president vice-president of the International Weightlifting Federation, are sanctioned for their involvement in doping and corruption cases.
Article written by
Posted
Reading time : 1 min.
Two former leaders of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), Hungarian Tamas Ajan and Romanian Nicu Vlad, have been suspended for life for their role in doping cases. In its press release (in English)Thursday, June 16, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) specifies that it took such a decision “égiven the seriousness of the anti-doping rule violations and the length of time during which they were committed”.
Tamas Ajan chaired the IWF for twenty years before being forced to resign in April 2020. Nicu Vlad was the vice-president of the organization. Both had been presented to the CAS in December 2021 by the International Control Agency (ITA), after months of turmoil for world weightlifting, for having “manipulated the doping control process” and reason for “their complicity in anti-doping rule violations involving several weightlifters over a period of several years since 2012”
The vast doping and corruption scandal erupted following the broadcast of a documentary by the German channel ARD in January 2020. It triggered cascading investigations. The International Control Agency, to which the weightlifting federation has delegated its anti-doping program, has thus been seized of 146 suspected cases. “over the period 2009-2019”she recalls in a separate press release, before going back to the role “of complicity and falsification” former leaders of the world body as well as national federations.
Just like the details of the sentences, “the exact charges and evidence” aimed at the two accused will be detailed later. They “include concealment, delay and obstruction in the management of the results of certain athletes” having violated anti-doping regulations “so that they can participate in high-level sporting events such as the Olympics”says the ITA.
Weightlifting therefore remains under the close supervision of the International Olympic Committee. Its maintenance on the program of the Paris Olympics in 2024 is not yet guaranteed. The discipline represents more than a quarter of doping cases in Olympic history.
Seen from Europe
Franceinfo selects daily content from European public audiovisual media, members of Eurovision. These contents are published in English or French.