The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said the 11 athletes tested positive for a range of banned substances.
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The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on Wednesday disclosed the names of 15 past Olympians, including three Beijing 2008 gold medallists, who failed doping tests after their samples were re-analysed.
Retests of doping samples provided at Beijing 2008 have returned adverse findings from 11 weightlifting medallists.
The IWF said in a statement on its website Wednesday that Chinese gold medalists Cao Lei, Liu Chunhong and Chen Xiexia all tested positive for GHRP-2, which stimulates growth hormone production, while Liu also tested positive for the stimulant sibutramine.
Belarus’ Andrei Rybakov, who won silver in Beijing and is the current world record holder in the 85kg category, is also on the list after he tested positive for anabolic steroids Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone and Stanozolol.
Kazakhstan’s Mariya Grabovetskaya (bronze, Beijing) Maya Maneza (gold, London) and Irina Nekrassova (silver, Beijing) were implicated, along with Russia’s Khadzhilurat Akkayev (silver Athens and bronze, Beijing) and Dimitri Lapikov (bronze Beijing).
Rybakov’s compatriots Nostassia Novikova, bronze medallist in the 53kg category, and Iryna Kulesha, who didn’t win a medal in Beijing but took 75kg bronze in London, have also been named.
A further 10 lifters who competed in Beijing, including five medalists, were already suspended after failing earlier retests.
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At Rio 2016, Kyrgyzstan’s Izzat Artykov was stripped of his bronze in the men’s 69kg event having failed a doping test.
