Igor Son, who won an Olympic medal in weightlifting, was on the list of six athletes who were found guilty of doping.
Igor Son gets to keep the medal he got in Tokyo. EPA/AOP
The Weightlifting Federation of Kazakhstan informs that six Kazakh weightlifters have given a positive doping test result and have been banned from competition. One of the names on the list is an Olympic medalist Igor Son24,
Son won the bronze medal at the 2021 Games in the 61-kilogram category. According to the release, he will not lose his Olympic medal, as the test was taken several months after the Olympics.
For a weightlifter, the cart is not the first in his career. He used a banned substance in the early stages of his sports career and in 2015 received a seven-month ban.
This time the punishment is clearly more noticeable. Son will be sidelined from competitions for the next eight years.
Kazakhstan has had enough doping cartels in weightlifting before. According to AP, medals from the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games have been stripped from the Kazakhs afterwards. For example, at the London Olympics, Kazakhstan won no less than four gold medals, but lost three of them due to carts.
There is a threat that Kazakhstan’s athletes would be banned from prestigious competitions if the doping violations continue. In the press release of the country’s weightlifting association, the situation is calmed down by reminding that the doping results came in connection with national and not international competitions.