Topic: Casey Burgener not chosen to lift in the Olympic Games

[Paul LaDuke]

I have read on another weightlifting forum that Casey Burgerner was not chosen by the powers that be to lift in the 2008 Olympics!   How can the International Olympic Commitee and/or the International Weightlifting Federation not pick this outstanding weightlifter to compete?  What justification do they have in not picking him?  He finished 12th in last year's world championships and 2nd in the Pan Ams (should have been 1st!), so he obviously is one of the greatest lifters in the world.  There were empty slots to fill within this Olympic competition, so logic would say that the IWF and IOC would try to pick the best lifters in the pool that remains!  So why not Casey!!!  What is the deal?  It makes no sense to me!  If the extra slots went to better lifters, then so be it.  But I don't see this being the case.  Why were these decisions made and can anyone be held accountable for it!

Some members within the USAW solely blame the USAW and they certainly have some culpablitiliy for not earning more slots this quadrennial.  But that being said this current travesty rests squarely on the shoulders of the IWF and IOC for not ensuring that the extra, unused Olympic slots went to the best lifters!  This smells of backroom dealings, money changing hands, politics, favoritism, etc.  Everything that many USAW members accuse our current board of doing seems to have been done to us by the IOC and IWF!

I welcome other thoughts!

[Mike Wittmer]

Paul, there are several reasons for this situation.  First off, we did not finish high enough at the '06 and '07 world championships to secure any slots for the Olympic Games.  For whatever reason, either our best lifters did not lift, or our best lifters did not lift well enough to score enough (or any) points, or a combination of both.

Fortunately, we were able to do well enough at the PanAm championships to earn two slots.  There was some hope we might be granted a third slot as it appeared we would get three until all of the drug test results came back after the '07 worlds.  However, the drug test results eliminated some lifters, but not those in weight classes we were entered in.  Therefore, another country bumped ahead of us and we were out or the running for three slots.

At the Olympic Trials, we were told we had a third slot and that the IWF would make an official announcement the following week.  In hindsight, that alone should have made many wonder.  After the trials, the USAW web site listed two men on the Olympic team and two alternates (Casey Burgener and Lance Frye), seemingly a formality until the IWF came through with the "official" announcement.  That announcement never materialized.  As for what happened, it is anyone's guess.  Was there a misunderstanding?  Did someone lie?  Did several lie?  Did someone guess wrong?  We will probably never know the truth. 

As for an additional slot, the IOC is big on participation from a lot of countries.  That is why some of the best lifters (and it is not just weightlifting) are not at the games as lessor lifters (and other athletes) from more obscure countries are included.  I recall a swimmer a few years ago that took about three times as long to swim the race.  He was from a country that did not even have a regulation pool.  God bless him.  He did the best he could and did not quit.  He did not drown either and I was concerned he might.  But, the fact is he could not make even a high school swim team in the US and really had no business there.  It was like a heavyweight doing 90/115 at the Olympics, something similar to that has happened.  So, once we knew there was no added slot the week following the trials, it was obvious there would be none, period. 

The shame of this, aside from the ethical issues, is that Casey made a clutch lift and he and his family thought he made the Olympic team.  Others knew otherwise.  In my opinion, they may have known it then, but the farce was allowed to continue.   This whole situation is probably one of the worst things ever to happen to the sport.

Hope this helps..............somewhat.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

IMO, the only thing the USAW can clearly be blamed for is the debacle of a qualifying system we used to pick who got the slots, after changing it- how many times? Its a subjective and hence easily manipulated system- average of this or that. This is of course why I keep saying we need to just use the Golden Standard to pick our squads. Its fair to everyone, consistent, and totally resistant to manipulation. Dennis Snethen (USAW ED)told me he was interested in it. We will see what happens. Other than that, the biggest blame should go to the IWF who through their own ineptitude and/or corruption has allowed doped up teams to keep slots despite multiple positives and obvious systematic doping. Whoever as at fault doesn't matter much to Casey at this point I would guess. This is a real bummer to start off the lifting for the USA but its exactly the kind of crap I have come to expect from the IWF and why I don't even care about lifting in international competitions in the slightest.

[Walter Bailey]

As for an additional slot, the IOC is big on participation from a lot of countries.  That is why some of the best lifters (and it is not just weightlifting) are not at the games as lessor lifters (and other athletes) from more obscure countries are included.  I recall a swimmer a few years ago that took about three times as long to swim the race.  He was from a country that did not even have a regulation pool.  God bless him.  He did the best he could and did not quit.  He did not drown either and I was concerned he might.  But, the fact is he could not make even a high school swim team in the US and really had no business there.  It was like a heavyweight doing 90/115 at the Olympics, something similar to that has happened.  So, once we knew there was no added slot the week following the trials, it was obvious there would be none, period. 

I remember seeing a weightlifter from Sierra Leone (I think) who lifted a 200kg total as a 77kg lifter in Sydney.  I guess wild cards go to guys like him

[Stephen Georgiou]

Imagine the heartache....I wouldnt be able to get myself out of bed in the morning after having such a dream shattered. Poor guy.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

OTC's Burgener lifted from Olympic Games
Weightlifter's spot had been uncertain, doesn't make final list

BEIJING • Thinking he had an Olympic spot in weightlifting, Casey Burgener learned Thursday he will not compete in the Beijing Games because of confusion over the international qualifying process.

The competitors' list released a day before the Opening Ceremony didn't include the Olympic Training Center resident, who learned in May the International Weightlifting Federation had yanked the spot he helped qualify at the Pan American Championships.

USA Weightlifting officials had known the status of Burgener - a 25-year-old in the 231.5-plus-pound division - for Beijing was in doubt since December, when the IWF reconfigured the results from the 2007 world championships based on positive drug tests, none by American lifters.

"He deserves to be on this team," USA Weightlifting executive director Dennis Snethen said. "America is hurting right now. We need our big, strong guy in the main event."

The U.S. Olympic Committee has fought for Burgener's spot the past three months, considering an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, world sport's highest court.

That appeal won't happen because of what Snethen called IWF qualifying procedures that are "not clear enough to win the case. ... It's a done deal. The competitors' list is out. Once that goes out, I've never seen it changed."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

Burgener lifted from competition
By Martin Thorstensson

Casey Burgener was instrumental in getting the U.S. men's weightlifting team to Beijing. On the eve of the Opening Ceremony, he learned that will not be allowed to compete in Beijing

The International Weightlifting Federation released the start list of all competitors at its technical meeting on the evening of August 7, Burgener's name was not included for the 105+kg event.

The ruling ended an almost one-year ordeal of gained and lost Olympic berths for the American team.

Initially, the United States qualified three Olympic spots at the 2007 World Championships in September, then lost them following a recount of lifting scores after doping cases involving non-U.S. athletes came up in December. The U.S. regained its Olympic participation at the final continental qualifier, the Pan American Championships in March, although with only two berths.

Three days before the Team Trials on May 17, USA Weighlifting was informed verbally by IWF Vice President and USOC member Dragomir Cioroslan that the team had earned a third spot following doping offenses committed by eleven members of the Greek weightlifting team. (The IWF handed down suspensions to those individuals, but still allowed the Greek delegation to send a four-man squad to Beijing.) Cioroslan promised that a written letter of the official decision was on its way.

[attachimg=1]
Casey Burgener celebrates his silver medal for the +105kg men's clean and jerk competition at the 2007 Pan American Games 2007.

Kendrick Farris and Chad Vaughn earned the top two spots at Trials, and Burgener earned what he thought was the third Olympic berth by lifting a personal-record 224kg on his second clean & jerk. USA Weightlifting announced its 2008 Olympic team with all three lifters' names included. One week after the Trials, the team learned that its third spot had been taken away following a protest lodged by several national federations to the IWF.

USA Weightlifting executive director Dennis Snethen was very disappointed with the final IWF ruling, decried a poor system of communication between the IWF, USOC and USA Weightlifting and rules that need to change.

"We earned these three spots, and they were taken away."

Burgener made the trip to Beijing with the rest of the team, as they awaited final confirmation. In communications between USA Weightlifting and the IWF, Snethen pointed to the U.S.'s 15-year clean doping record.

"We played the game clean, and were still punished."

Vaughn expressed remorse on behalf of his good friend and teammate, and promised to use his omission as personal motivation when he competes in the 77kg event.

"Casey did more than anybody to get us here. That fact makes it even worse. It could be a blessing for me [and Kendrick Farris]. Now we have something worth fighting for."

Burgener, who has been staying in a room at Beijing's Normal University awaiting the decision, will remain in Beijing as a volunteer for the USOC and to cheer on his fiance', Natalie Woolfolk, competing in the women's 63kg competition on August 12. The two lifters will be married the day before Thanskgiving in Burgener's hometown of Bonsall, California.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

Local weightlifter loses his spot
By Mark Zeigler

BEIJING – Casey Burgener flew to Beijing. He collected his Team USA gear. He prepared mentally and physically to participate in the Olympic weightlifting competition.

His six teammates are competing.

His fiancee, Natalie Woolfolk, is competing.

He isn't.

The Rancho Buena Vista High alum is 6 feet 1, weighs 275 and can hoist 494 pounds above his head, but he has been tossed around by the capricious politics of international sport like a dandelion in a hurricane. Burgener was on the U.S. Olympic team, off it, on it again and then, finally last night, off it for good.

“It's heartbreaking,” said Woolfolk, who plans to marry Burgener this fall in his hometown of Bonsall. “To finally find out the day before the Olympics starts that you're not competing, it's just heartbreaking. I wish he was here with me.”

Woolfolk paused as her eyes welled with tears.

“But he's extremely level-headed,” she continued. “He doesn't blame anybody. He doesn't call anybody names. He'll get over this and get on to something else. But he deserves this, just as much as anyone on this team. He deserves to be called an Olympian. He's a testament to the attitude, the commitment, everything that goes along with being an Olympian.”

[attachimg=1]
Weightlifter Casey Burgener is a Rancho Buena Vista High graduate.

A USA Weightlifting spokesman said Burgener, 25, had declined interview requests, but his coaches and teammates spoke candidly and at times angrily about what they perceive to be a major snub.

The back story:

Weightlifting is an individual sport, but countries earn berths to the Olympics through team results at the World Championships. The 27th-place team at worlds gets three slots, and the U.S. men finished exactly 27th at the 2007 worlds last summer.

In December, USA Weightlifting executive director Dennis Snethen was scanning the Web site of the International Weightlifting Federation and noticed, to his utter shock, that Chinese Taipei was listed as 27th. The U.S. men were now 28th.

The IWF explanation: Lifters from other countries had been disqualified for failing drug tests, and when the results were recalculated the U.S. men had dropped one place.

The U.S. men went to a secondary Olympic qualifier, in Peru in March, and secured two slots for Beijing. They continued lobbying for a third slot and, Snethen says, were told they had been granted it shortly before the U.S. Trials.

Then Burgener, a heavyweight whose father taught him how to lift in their garage, qualified as the third U.S. man.

A week later, the IWF informed USA Weightlifting that, sorry, it would have only two men's berths in Beijing.

“Our strategy,” Snethen said, “was to bring Casey to the Games, and with drug positives or no-shows hope the IWF would let him in. That didn't happen, unfortunately.”

The great irony, of course, is that positive drug tests – Greece and Bulgaria each had 11 – end up punishing a country without any.

“We're lifting weights clean and we have a slot taken away from us,” Snethen says. “That we play the game clean and get penalized for it, that's what hurts the most.”

Burgener is expected to remain in Beijing to watch Woolfolk compete Tuesday in the 139-pound division. Woolfolk said Burgener's parents, Mike and Leslie, likely would cancel their trip to Beijing.

And Burgener's future in the sport?

“He's saying that he's done,” Woolfolk said, “but it's hard at this moment to say you'll keep going. I think he needs some time away from the sport right now.”