Tokyo bronze medalist weightlifter handed eight-year ban for doping
FILE PHOTO: Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Weightlifting – Men’s 61kg – Group A – Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan – July 25, 2021. Igor Son of Kazakhstan in action. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Kazakh weightlifter Igor Son, who won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, has been banned for eight years for doping but will not be stripped of his medal, the country’s weightlifting federation (WFRK) said on Wednesday.
Son, who won bronze in the men’s 61kg category, was among six weightlifters to receive doping bans after they had tested positive for banned substances in March 2022. No substances were specified but the WFRK said it would investigate internally.
“This out-of-competition testing was taken after six months from those international competitions where the athletes took part, so there is no question of canceling their results or returning medals,” WFRK general secretary Aldiyar Nuralinov said.
“I would especially like to stress this with regard to Igor Son’s Olympic medal.”
Son, 24, served a seven-month suspension in 2015 after testing positive for prohibited steroid methandienone and was stripped of his Youth World Championship gold medal.
Kazakhstan has been stripped of Olympic weightlifting medals, including six golds, from the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games for various anti-doping rule violations.
It was among several nations to be allocated only two places in weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics because of its historic doping record.
