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Trio of Chinese gold medalists among 15 weightlifters suspended for doping

Following a retest of samples from the 2008 Summer Games, the International Weightlifting Federation published the names of 15 competitors who tested positive for banned substances, including three Olympic champions and eight others who could be stripped of their medals.

China dominated female weightlifting at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, capturing four of the sport’s seven gold medals, but three of those champions — Cao Lei, Chen Xiexia and Liu Chunhong — all tested positive for hormone growth stimulant GHRP-2, according to the IWF, via the Associated Press.

Liu, who also won the 69-kilogram weight class at the 2004 Athens Olympics, tested positive for the stimulant sibutramine as well. She set three world records during her Olympic performance in 2008.

Eight other medalists from the 2008 Summer Olympics retested positive for anabolic steroids:

Men’s 85 kg: Two-time silver medalist and world record-holder Andrei Rybakou of Belarus
Men’s 94 kg: Bronze medalist Khadzhimurat Akkayev of Russia (also silver medalist in 2004)
Men’s 105 kg: Bronze medalist Dmitry Lapikov of Russia

Women’s 53 kg: Bronze medalist Anastasia Novikova of Belarus
Women’s 63 kg: Silver medalist Irina Nekrasova of Kazakhstan
Women’s 69 kg: Bronze medalist Natalya Davydova of Ukraine
Women’s 75 kg: Bronze medalist Mariya Grabovetskaya of Kazakhstan
Women’s +75 kg: Silver medalist Olha Korobka of Ukraine

All 11 could be stripped of their medals, pending an International Olympic Committee ruling. They all remain suspended as the IWF reviews each case, along with four others whose 2008 retests came up positive, including 2012 Olympic medalists Iryna Kulesha of Belarus and Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan.

China again led the medal count in weightlifting at this summer’s Olympic Games, capturing five golds and seven overall. Kazakhstan and Belarus combined for seven weightlifting medals in Rio de Janeiro. Russian weightlifters were banned from the Rio Olympics due to state-sponsored doping charges.

The IWF suspended ten more weightlifters from the 2008 Beijing Games, five of whom were medalists, during earlier retests, and Turkey’s Sibel Ozkan has been stripped of her 48-kilogram silver medal, per the AP. None of Team USA’s six weightlifters finished in the top five of any weight class in 2008.

[Related: The first Rio de Janeiro Olympian has been stripped of a medal for doping]

Kyrgyzstan’s Izzat Artykov was the first athlete to be stripped of a medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, losing his bronze in men’s weightlifting after testing positive for strychnine last week.