Heavy metal band of mercenaries rocked by another doping scandal
The heavy metal world of weightlifting has dropped the bar on its foot once again. Weightlifting, the power event of the Olympics, has been threatened with the boot from the Olympic programme in the past as competitors had been fuelling that power with anabolic steroids.
To their credit, weightlifting officials moved to combat doping in the sport and introduced mass testing before Olympic competition. Trouble is, a number of participants did not pay attention to the warning - or stopped taking drugs too late - and were unmasked while in Sydney.
Two Romanian weightlifters tested positive to nandrolone, a steroid, and were kicked out of the Games. As a third Romanian had also been nabbed earlier in the year, the International Weightlifting Federation's 'three strikes and you are out' policy was enforced and the remainder of the Romanian squad were, although clean, banned from the Games and international competition for a year.
In a bizarre twist, the federation said the 'clean' lifters could stay if their Olympic Committee coughed up a US$50,000 fine. The International Olympic Committee thought this unusual and said 'no way'. But, not for the first time, the IOC did not have the clout to back up their threat.
The Romanian doping incident, and others involving weightlifters from Taiwan, Norway and the Czech Republic, has tarnished the image of weightlifting once again. Officials are in a Catch 22 situation as they would be criticised if they did not carry out a drug testing blitz but, now they have and grabbed a couple of cheats, the sport has been labelled as 'drug infested'.
Even more disconcerting is the transfer fee system in the sport. The records will show that the first two men's golds of the Games were won by Turkey and Croatia. In fact, both gold medallists - Halil Mutlu and Nikolay Pechalov - were born in Bulgaria and learned their sporting trade under some of the best coaches in the world.
Mutlu and 'Pocket Hercules' Naim Suleymanoglu switched allegiance to Turkey as it was the land of their fathers but Pechalov, like many Bulgarian lifters, went to Croatia for mainly cash reasons. He revealed that US$50,000 changed hands between the weightlifting federations of Croatia and Bulgaria to let him compete under a different flag.
Later in the competition, guys with Arab sounding names might appear on the medal lists under the banner of Qatar. They are, in fact, all Bulgarians who were reportedly 'bought' for a total fee of US$1 million. A bargain for Qatar if one of the eight wins Olympic or world gold. But does the Olympics, which is for many still about representing your country, need a mercenary bunch of weightlifters in its midst?
