3 Chinese weightlifters stripped of Olympic gold
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 13, 2017
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Weightlifter Cao Lei was one of three Chinese Olympians to be stripped of their gold medals by the IOC on Thursday. |
Three Chinese women's weightlifting gold medallists at the 2008 Beijing Olympics were disqualified for doping on Thursday following a reanalysis of their drug tests, the International Olympic Committee said.
Liu Chunhong (69kg category), Cao Lei (75kg) and Chen Xiexia (48kg) have tested positive for human growth hormone-releasing peptide GHRP-2 and now lose the gold medals they won in Beijing.
The three women were part of the China team who won eight of the 15 weightlifting medals on offer, with Liu Chunhong also winning gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, a medal she will keep despite this positive test. The trio have also won several world titles.
It leaves China facing a ban from international competition for a year, a sanction brought in by the sport's governing body the IWF last year to crack down on doping that is rife in weightlifting.
In all, eight athletes were disqualified on Thursday from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics in London as part of the ongoing series of retests from 2008 and 2012.
As of last month, the IOC’s program of retesting samples from the 2008 and 2012 Games using the latest detection methods had resulted in 101 new positives.
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