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Not clean ... and jerked Romanian weightlifting team banned from Olympics
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- The Romanian weightlifting team was thrown out of the Sydney Olympics after two lifters failed drug tests before the games, while another nine Olympic athletes have recorded suspected positive tests. International Olympic Committee director general Francois Carrard said Sunday (Saturday night EDT) that the expulsion of the Romanian lifting team was ordered by the International Weightlifting Federation. "The federation has a rule that if three test positive, the entire team is suspended," Carrard said. Carrard also said that at least nine "problematic" tests have been reported by international federations conducting their own pre-games controls. He did not identify the athletes or federations involved. At least two of the suspected positive tests were detected in the athletes' village, Carrard said. The IOC is carrying out its own drug testing in Sydney apart from those of the federations. Carrard said there have been no positive results so far in those tests. Traian Ciharean, a bronze medalist at the Barcelona Olympics, and Adrian Mateias failed dope tests administered to all 257 Olympic weightlifters. They were expelled from their team. According to the IWF, weightlifting is the only Olympic sport in which all athletes were tested for drugs before the Sydney Games. Earlier this year, Razvan Ilie, a 1999 world champion in the snatch at 1693/4 pounds, tested positive and was thrown off the team before the Olympics. The Romanian weightlifting federation last year began automatically banning for life any lifter who fails a drug test. At least four other weightlifters have been tossed out of the Olympics for failing pre-games drug tests: Stian Grimseth of Norway, and Chen Po-pu, world champion Chen Jui-lien and Wu Mei-yi of Taiwan. Also sent home was Taiwan coach Tsai Wen-yee.
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