Olympic, world medallists among 5 Russian weightlifters facing new doping charges
Country was barred entirely from sport at 2016 Olympics in Rio
Five Russian weightlifters, all of them world or European championship medallists, face doping charges which could herald a new wave of cases across a range of sports.
The International Weightlifting Federation said Tuesday that evidence against the five lifters, including Olympic bronze medallist Ruslan Albegov, comes from new investigations by the World Anti-Doping Agency into widespread drug use in Russian sports.
"This important development shows justice being brought to those that may have cheated their sport," WADA told The Associated Press in emailed comments Tuesday.
"The Agency awaits more such announcements from federations that have commenced results management on the basis of evidentiary packages provided by WADA."
"We have not shown any hesitation in taking the right decisions," he said in a statement. "While the IWF has done so much to begin a bright new chapter for our sport, we will also do what we can to pursue historical cases of doping."
Test results being revealed
Albegov is a two-time world champion who won bronze in July in a test event for next year's Olympics in Tokyo.
The others are world champion Tima Turiyeva and double European champions Oleg Chen and David Bedzhanyan, as well as Egor Klimonov, who won European championship silver in April.
Russia was banned entirely from weightlifting at the 2016 Olympics when the IWF said its doping problem brought the sport into disrepute. For next year's Olympics in Tokyo, Russia is among 17 countries hit with new doping-related restrictions on the size of their squads.
The lab data was crucial to bans for two Russians in the winter sport of biathlon in June. The International Biathlon Union handed Alexander Chernyshov and Alexander Pechyonkin longer bans because it deemed their conduct was aggravated by being part of an "organized doping scheme."
WADA president Craig Reedie said at the time that he expects more than 100 new doping cases to be brought across various Russian sports. Only a small fraction has so far been announced.