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All gone Entire Bulgarian lifting team removed after doping casesPosted: Thursday September 21, 2000 12:00 AMUpdated: Thursday November 09, 2000 11:40 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- The United States got its first weightlifting gold medal since 1960 Friday. Two Bulgarian lifters were stripped of their medals and thrown out of the Olympics after testing positive for a banned drug, and Bulgaria's entire weightlifting team was thrown out of the Sydney Olympics and suspended from international competition for 12 months, the International Weightlifting Federation announced. It was the second time in 12 years that Bulgarian lifters have been ejected from an Olympics for using the banned weight-losing drug, and the positive tests cast uncertainty upon the very future of the sport in the games. The International Olympic Committee said Friday that gold medalist Izabela Dragneva -- the first women's weightlifting champion in Olympic history -- and men's bronze medalist Sevdalin Minchev tested positive for banned diuretics at the Sydney Games. Instead, the women's gold medal will go to Tara Nott of Stilwell, Kan. Dragneva and Minchev were the second and third Bulgarian lifters found with the banned drug furosemide in their systems at these games. Both were ordered to return their medals and leave the Olympic Village. "When athletes are using this product, they are getting stupid," said Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC Medical Commission. Before the ouster decision was announced, IWF secretary general Tamas Ajan said the "three-strikes-and-out" rule would be applied to the Bulgarian team unless it decided to pay a $50,000 fine. The IWF then met with Bulgarian Olympic officials and announced the ouster. "We will plan to have them expelled regardless of the $50,000 fine," said IWF vice president Sam Coffa. "They have brought the sport of weightlifting into worthless repute." Beltcho Ivanov, secretary general of the Bulgarian national Olympic committee, said Dragneva and Minchev were tested when they entered the Olympic Village and no problems were detected. They both tested positive after the competition, he said. "It is impossible our athletes took this drug because it is very primitive," he said. The IWF said that "in light of the three positive tests recorded by Bulgarian weightlifters at these Olympic Games and further to their disqualification by the IOC, the IWF executive board, being conscious of its responsibilities ... suspends the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation forthwith for a period of not less than 12 months, pending further investigation." "All remaining lifters as well as officials from Bulgaria will not be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games," the IWF statement said. The Bulgarians could have paid a $50,000 fine and stayed in the games. IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said the fine, if it had been paid, would be used to fight doping in Bulgaria. He would not directly address weightlifting's future in the games. "We are doing what we have to do," Samaranch said. IOC Director General Francois Carrard, meanwhile, warned against tarring every Bulgarian weightlifter because of the actions of a few. "We always have to be very careful in making the distinction between clean athletes and cheats," he said at a news conference. The sanction means Nott, who finished second, gets the gold medal in the women's class. Informed of her gold medal, Nott said she was "kind of in shock." "It's good to know that those who cheat are getting caught," she said. "Someday we will have a level playing field, and myself and others will be able to win on the platform rather than after a drug test." New medal ceremonies were scheduled for Friday afternoon in the Olympic Village. Her gold is the first for an American lifter since Chuck Vinci won the 123-pound title at the Rome Games 40 years ago. On Wednesday, Bulgarian lifter Ivan Ivanov was stripped of his silver medal in the 123-pound class after testing positive for furosemide. Ivanov, a former Olympic and world champion, was the first athlete to fail an in-competition test during the games. Johann Olaf Koss, an athlete member of the medical commission, said the IOC must consider the overall Bulgarian weightlifting problem. "You have three cases for the same drug in the same sport from the same country," he said Friday. "That's the big problem." At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Bulgaria was stripped of two weightlifting gold medals and subsequently withdrew its entire weightlifting team after athletes tested positive for furosemide. Such diuretics are used to lose weight but also can be used to mask the presence of other performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids. The most commonly used diuretic is caffeine, which also is on the banned list. Dragneva, 28, won the gold medal in the women's 105-pound event, in which Nott originally won the silver. Minchev, 26, took the bronze medal in the men's 137-pound class in which Gennady Oleshchuk of Belarus finished fourth. Two Romanian weightlifters, Traian Ciharean and Adrian Mateas, were suspended and expelled from the Olympic Village after failing out-of-competition tests. The IOC has conducted 760 doping tests at competition sites so far, in addition to 227 off-site blood tests and 323 off-site urine tests, Carrard said. Though he would not comment on weightlifting's future, he said the IOC would discuss the situation with the federation "quietly after the games." IOC vice president Dick Pound said he hoped it would not mean the end of Olympic weightlifting. "Each positive test is a success rather than a failure," he said. But "I would hate to see the sport dropped from the program unless it's clear that nobody is going to do anything about the problem."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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