Several Bulgarian weightlifters revealed as dopers in the days before the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be sitting out the next few millennium of Olympics Games; Others, only sitting a few years. The Sydney Morning Herald with the call:
The International Weightlifting Federation has banned two Bulgarian athletes for life and slapped four-year bans on the rest of the team for doping, the state agency for youth and sports (DAMS) says.
All the lifters concerned tested positive for banned substances ahead of the Beijing Olympics, leading to the entire Bulgarian weightlifting delegation to miss the Games.
Weightlifters Georgy Markov and Alan Tsagaev received lifetime bans since this was their second offence, the agency said in a statement.
The other Bulgarian male and female lifters angered the IWF a bit too:
The other nine athletes in the Bulgarian team - six men and three women - will be banned from competing for the next four years, it added.
The Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation meanwhile will also have to pay a $US465,000 ($A583,000) fine to the IWF.
DAMS met on Thursday to discuss measures to overcome the crisis, noting that "weightlifting is one of our most successful sports, that has brought numerous medals, titles and fame to Bulgaria".
But it also decided to cut state funding to the national weightlifting federation.
The Bulgarian men's and women's teams withdrew from the Beijing Olympics in late June after all 11 athletes on the preliminary squad tested positive for the anabolic steroid metandienon.
Bulgarian lifters compiled a checkered history of integrity, and will now suffer the consequences.
But the country has also experienced major doping scandals: its weightlifting teams had to withdraw from both the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney after the athletes tested positive for banned substances at the Games.
Only Tsagaev was allowed to compete in the 2000 final, winning a silver medal in the process, following an appeal.
Markov, on the other hand, was forced to return his gold medal won in Sydney.
The rest of the team have all received medals in Olympic Games, World or European Championships.
oh nice man , he's so big
Posted by: The Thletes | 09/18/2008 at 02:17