4 More London Olympic Weightlifters Ordered to Return Medals

In an October 27th announcement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced official sanctions for eight athletes implicated in doping retests following the 2012 London Olympics. Six of the named athletes are weightlifters, and four are weightlifting medalists. They are:

Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan, gold medalist in the women’s 53kg category

Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan, gold medalist in the women’s 63kg category

Svetlana Podobedova of Kazakhstan, gold medalist in the women’s 75kg category

Dzina Sazanavets of Belarus, 4th place in the women’s 69kg category

Marina Shkermankova of Belarus, 3rd place in the women’s 69kg category

Yauheni Zharnasek of Belarus, 9th place in the men’s +105kg category

Svetlana Podobedova at the 2012 London Olympics. Image by Simon Q, licensed under CC By 2.0

The six athletes above will have their names removed from the London Olympics official results, and prizes including medals have been ordered to be returned.

An excerpt from the sanction concerning Kazakhstan’s Chinshanlo is embedded below for reference:

The Athlete, Zulfiya Chinshanlo:

is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 (presence and/or use of Prohibited Substances or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete’s bodily specimen),

is disqualified from the event in which she participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games London 2012, namely the women’s 53kg weightlifting event, in which she ranked 1st and for which she was awarded the gold medal,

has the medal, the medallist pin and the diploma obtained in the women’s 53kg weightlifting event withdrawn and is ordered to return the same.

Though other athletes from London have been implicated in doping retests, several have yet to receive official IOC sanctions. A full list of athletes (thus far) to test positive in retests from the Beijing and London Olympic Games can be found here.

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