Topic: News: Weightlifting's Future Under A Cloud

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Weightlifting's Future Under A Cloud
By Dan Harrison

Weightlifting's future in the Commonwealth Games has been thrown into doubt after Games officials confirmed the sport's latest drug scandal.

Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell this morning confirmed two Indian weightlifters had tested positive to the anabolic steroid Stanozolol, a banned substance under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

Mr Fennell would not rule out cutting the sport of weightlifting from future Games if efforts to clean it up failed.

"If the thing gets totally out of hand and its not being corrected, then obviously we'll have to take the strongest possible action," he said.

But Mr Fennell said he hoped the federation wouldn't have to cut the sport, which has been contested at every Commonwealth Games since the first Games in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930.

"In our discussions with the International Weightlifting Federation, we are satisfied that they are taking the strongest possible measures to clean up the sport," he said.

"If we were not satisfied that they were working positively towards that, then we would have a greater concern. But weightlifting is too good a sport, too popular a sport, too important a sport for us to attempt to dismiss it because of a problem with drugs... we must all work together to ensure that we can clean up the sport."

International Weightlifting Federation first vice president Sam Coffa said he was taking the threat to the sport seriously.

"You have to take it very seriously," he said.

"Nothing could be worse than being eliminated from any of the games... because it also has a rippling effect, one game does it, another one may do it," he said.

Mr Coffa defended the federation's efforts to clean up the sport.

"I'm not sure that we can take any stronger action than what I'm suggesting... I don't think there's any other international sport that does what we're doing."

Mr Coffa said the IWF devoted one third of its resources to anti-doping measures. He said every country should have its own independent drug testing authority.

"Obviously there are some nations... that are still persisting in a culture which is not acceptable to all of us," he said.

"We will continue to monitor, we will continue to be vigilant, we will continue to do all of those things necessary to ensure that not only individuals but nations who are members of our international federation comply,"

Mr Coffa said he was "bloody annoyed," that his sport had once again been sullied by drugs.

"I'm furious, I really am furious, because we've done so much work in these games to ensure that they were clean ... and to be marred by some idiots, it isn't the right thing," he said.

Mr Fennell said more than 700 drug tests had been conducted during the Games, and the positive results announced today were the only positive results he was aware of.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Probe Lifts The Bar For Heavyweights
Officials want to clean up the sport suspected as Australia's dirtiest
By Cameron Stewart

WHEN it comes to bold statements, Australia's weight-lifting supremo Sam Coffa is a multiple gold medallist. Three months ago, after four Australian lifters returned positive drug tests, Coffa declared that Australia's weight-lifting team would be squeaky clean at these Commonwealth Games.

It was a brazen prediction to make at the time and it has proved half right: the weight-lifting team has won a swag of medals and officials have so far reported no adverse drug tests. But weight-lifting is far from squeaky clean, and is fast gaining a reputation for being this country's dirtiest and most corrupt sport.

The besieged sport is the subject of a sweeping inquiry by the new Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, which clearly suspects there may be something rotten at weight-lifting's core. What's more, the Australian Weightlifting Federation, of which Coffa is president, is being questioned by the Australian Sports Commission about financial reporting.

In ordinary circumstances, someone such as Coffa may be expected to step aside from his duties until his sport is cleared. But not Coffa. This pugnacious, Sicilian-born, former weight-lifter is a street fighter from way back, a man whose motto is to ignore or crush those who criticise him.

"With all due respect to Sam, I don't think he is the man for the media," former dual Commonwealth Games weight-lifting gold medallist Robert Kabbas says. "He is trying to do everything himself and have the final say. [But] this whole issue has not been handled well by the Weightlifting Federation; it seems to have been a complete botch-up from the start."

But Coffa is having none of this. "I don't see any reason to step aside, I don't see the purpose of it," he tells Inquirer. "We are no cleaner and no dirtier than any other sport."

Coffa is no stranger to criticism; he has been in dark places before and has not only survived but thrived to become one of this country's most powerful sporting administrators.

In 2003 an independent investigation into Australian weight-lifting concluded that the sport was in disarray, riven by conflicts of interest, a lack of transparency and jobs for the boys. Coffa's response at the time was to dismiss the report, saying: "I don't see it as a personal criticism of me."

Since then Coffa has cemented his position at the top of the sporting tree. In addition to being president of the AWF since 1983 and vice-president of the sport's international federation, Coffa is also president of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association and deputy chairman of the Games organising committee.

This places Coffa on a par with Games chief Ron Walker and Victorian Commonwealth Games Minister Justin Madden as one of the key architects of these successful games. Yet it also raises questions about whether his lofty Commonwealth Games roles and his mates in high places have helped shield Coffa from the scrutiny he deserves.

After 22 years as head of the nation's peak weight-lifting body, Coffa can hardly blame others for the bad name his sport has gained in recent years. As a strength sport, weight-lifting has been prone in the past to allegations of drug abuse among athletes who believe - rightly - that substances now illegal in sport could transform them from also-rans to medallists.

But while other sports in Australia - such as cycling and swimming - have confronted the drugs issue head-on and cleaned themselves up, weight-lifting gives the impression of being stuck in a time warp.

Coffa's AWF is belatedly making all the right noises about drug abuse, but the federation has hardly taken the initiative on this issue in the past.

Rather than embrace ASADA's drug inquiry, announced eight days ago, as a chance to clear his sport's name, Coffa slammed its timing as "absolutely shocking" and berated the media for the "utterly disgusting way the sport is being presented".

But weight-lifters who have spoken to Inquirer reserve their disgust for officials who they claim have not done enough to catch the minority of lifters who use illegal stimulants. "Those few who do use [illegal] drugs have destroyed the reputation of those [weight-lifters] who are clean," says one lifter, who has asked not to be named. "In the past not enough was done to try to clean up drugs from the sport."

By initiating its own broad inquiry into weight-lifting, ASADA has effectively cast a vote of no confidence in the ability of Coffa's AWF to investigate and punish those who abuse the rules. Some weight-lifters have welcomed ASADA's inquiry. They believe the short-term damage it could cause their sport's reputation is far outweighed by the long-term benefits of cleaning it up.

"I think the sport needs a chance to clear itself, to clear the air," says Tony O'Malley, president of Weightlifting Tasmania, who has recently seen the dark side of the sport from close quarters. Two Tasmanian lifters, Camilla Fogagnolo and Jenna Myers, tested positive to the banned stimulant benzylpiperazine last October. ASADA will examine allegations that the Tasmanian lifters sourced their drugs through another lifter associated with a convicted steroid trafficker whose company has been selling supplements to lifters.

The inquiry will be an early test of ASADA's effectiveness, but in a sign that the new agency will not go soft on weight-lifting it has appointed one of the world's toughest anti-drug investigators, Richard Young, to spearhead the inquiry. If ASADA finds drug abuse in the sport is more widespread than the recent cases, Coffa may come under enormous pressure to step aside, if only to give his sport a fresh start.

Not everyone believes the ASADA inquiry will force Coffa to fall on his sword. Former gold medallist Kabbas believes Coffa has questions to answer about the way he administers the sport, but he believes the ASADA drug findings will be largely benign. "It is a waste of time and money," he says. "I would bet that Australian weight-lifters are the cleanest in the world."

Coffa also believes that the recently tightened drug testing rules have reduced drug abuse in the sport.

"It [drug use] is on the way down mainly because of the vigilance of the authorities," he says. "In Australia and internationally, anti-doping [tests] are far more vigilant and rigorous. We are a strength sport, so we are at risk from time to time and we have had a few people doing the wrong thing. But one is too many and if we find them we will get them out of the system."

But will Coffa - as the patriarch of weight-lifting - also get out of the sport if the ASADA inquiry confirms fears that it is widely tainted?

"When the time comes, if my constituents don't want me there, then I will go," he says.

But if Coffa has his way, this will not be any time soon.

[Pete_Stewart]

I think the main issues are conflict of interest, funding and transparency.  

A lot of the problems seem to be down to a conflict of interests in this issue.  A federation wants its sport/lifters to be in as many major competitions as possible and therefore a high number of positive drug tests is going to be detrimental to this happening.  Drug testing HAS to be done by an independent body and if there is a scandal the investigation should also be carried out by an independent body.  Why would you let the AWF investigate their own lifters as there would be a conflict of interest.

There should be enough funding for an outside organisation to perform the drug tests and the IWF needs to determine where this money comes from.  

For transparency I think a database operated by the independent organisation performing the drug tests should be made available so we can see when and how often lifters were tested.  If there was a missed test or athlete was unavailable this needs to be recorded.  I also think samples should be stored for an indefinite length of time so they can be retested when new and novel substances are uncovered.  The relatively recent story concerning THG reinforces my opinion for this.  

In my personal opinion all mens senior world records are too high for clean athletes to do.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

In my opinion, the problem is that penalties for getting caught have not been getting more stringent despite repeated and constant major doping scandals. What is the response of the IWF to each scandal in turn? "We do x number of doping tests per year." So what? There is not enough money in weightlifting to do enough drug tests with the present system and never will be.

Spending more and more money to achieve an "impressive" numbers of drug tests is nothing but PR. Because the penalities for getting caught are not realy that severe, especially for the countries that just keep bribing their way out of team suspensions by giving the IWF money, there is no reason for the countries that are systematically cheating to do anything. The tests are usually beaten, and when they are not they simply substitute another cheater for the busted athlete, while that athletes loads up for when his/her suspension ends.

There is only one way to resolve the situation. We need a lifetime ban on athletes busted for the "worst" drugs (steroids, growth hormone, diuretics, etc) on their first offense in international competition. And, we need a four year suspension for any team with more than one positive for steroids, gh, diuretics, etc. in international competitions, with no bribe-out clause. Do less testing, but target the testing on the athletes and countries that win medals in major international competitions-test those people very often (every 2-4 weeks) and stop wasting money on countries lifting "normal" weights.

The last several scandals in our sport have resulted in no tightening of the rules whatsoever, only PR campaigns. The absurdity of the present system is quite clear. It is the intentional letting of the cheaters off the hook that is funding all these "massive numbers of testing/the PR campaign." What good is it to test more if you aren't going to penalize those that get caught? Will this strategy of the dog-and pony show fool the press and Olympic authorities forever? Nope. We are headed toward our sports elimination from the Olympics. We will make an easy scapegoat given our complete failure to tighten up in the last decade or so.

I welcome the current investigation into our sport. It is probably the only hope to save it, in my opinion.

[Gabriel Grinstead]

I don't support the use of drugs, but quite honestly, there are more people doping than people realize. Only a few get caught. Current testing just cannot keep up with the new drugs as they are introduced.

I think the Olympic Games has become a joke in general.

They either need to get better testing methods and stay on top of the game or they need to legalize it.  Otherwise, people who want to do things naturally will never make it to a world level.

Just my opinion... Be a shame if weightlifting got the shaft and no other sport does in the Olympics... Heck, every sport has dopers.  It really is that common now... Just read the head lines.

Edit ** What is up with people being allowed to compete again after a "slap" on the wrist? As far as I am concerned, if you are caught doping you should be eliminated from that sport and every other sport on the Olympic level... None of this 2 - 4 year ban stuff... Better testing, complete bans would do the Olympics a lot of good.

[Matt Denslinger]

I don't support the use of drugs, but quite honestly, there are more people doping than people realize. Only a few get caught. Current testing just cannot keep up with the new drugs as they are introduced.

How many are using performance enhancers? 60%? 45%? 90%?

I realize it is a battle of chemists vs. chemists in a sense.