Weightlifting can be excluded from the program of Olympic games

Weightlifting may lose its place in future Olympic games, if the ongoing investigation by the international Federation of the sport (IWF) confirmed the fact of corruption, said the leadership of the International Olympic Committee.

Last week in the independent report said that the IWF has suffered from decades of corruption, organized by former President tamás Adhanom. This included buying votes, hiding doping and 10.4 million dollars in cash that was stolen. Ajahn denies any wrongdoing.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “We are deeply concerned and shocked by this report and what the scope of this activity reflected in this report in relation to doping and control. We have made clear, depending on the results of the findings of the Supervisory Commission of the IWF, we reserve the right to very far-reaching measures, including, inter alia, the issue of the exclusion of weightlifting from the Olympic games.

Now we can say that we will fully support the new leadership of the IWF, to reform the management of the Federation and in efforts to ensure the full independence of the anti-doping system from the Federation. Major steps have already been taken”.

81-year-old Hungarian Tamas Ajahn, a former IOC member, supervised by the IWF since the mid 1970-ies, first occupying the position of Secretary General and then President from 2000 until his retirement in April 2020.

Report on page 121 describes in detail the huge scale of corruption in IWF when it was headed by Ajahn who used the “tyranny of money” as their primary control mechanism. The investigation established that the main sources of these funds were doping fines paid personally Agano and withdrawal of cash in large amounts from the accounts of the IWF.