The weightlifting teams of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus might be banned from the Rio 2016 Olympics for anti-doping violations.The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said the ban related to the re-testing of samples taken at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The implementation of a one-year ban must first be ratified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
"Only clean athletes should be able to compete," as reported to have being said by a IWF statement.
Though the weightlifting's governing body is yet to give names of the athletes whose samples have been re-tested. The body announced it would hand bans to "national federations confirmed to have produced three or more anti-doping rule violations in the combined re-analysis process" of samples taken from Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
The statement followed confirmation last week that four London 2012 Olympic weightlifting champions from Kazakhstan, including four-time world champion Ilya Ilyin, had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Also Six other lifters who competed at the 2012 Games have being reported to have tested positive after hundreds of samples were actually re-analysed.
On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee, IOC opened the door for some athletes to go to this summer's Olympic Games, if they could prove they were clean.