The Problem with Weightlifting
The sport of weightlifting is all about strength. People compete to see who can lift the heaviest weights and defeat their competitors. For some reason though, weightlifting more than many other sports seems to have a big
doping problem on its hands. A lot of athletes from many countries have faced suspensions and bans as a result of drug abuse. As recently as January of this year, the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation had its license revoked due to a huge doping scandal that
saw many athletes banned from the sport in 2008. Hopefully this problem can be cleaned up and the sport can regain its glory once again.
The Olympic sport of weightlifting has a long and interesting history. No one knows exactly when the sport started but it has been around for a long time. Athletes lifting things in a competitive setting has been going on
since ancient times. Drawn evidence has been found in ancient Egypt, ancient
China and ancient Greece of weightlifting sports. However, it was in the 1800s that the first proper weightlifting competitions started to appear in
Europe. The first time weightlifting arrived at the Olympics was in 1896 but then disappeared and reappeared until it finally became a proper Olympic sport in 1920. The sport was very strange at that time and featured one handed lifts
as well. How the athletes did one handed lifts with very heavy weights must have been a sight to see. In 1932, five different weight divisions were introduced to the sport and in 1972 the sport took on the format that is used today.
Over the years, the sport became very popular but at the same time a disturbing trend started to develop. Athletes using performance enhancing drugs is nothing new and it has plagued almost all sports for a long time. Some
sports stars have always tried to flaunt the laws, bend the rules and try to win through illegal means. This has been a particular problem for weightlifting and over time, many weightlifters have been banned or suspended for competing and winning competitions
through the use of illegal means.
With the Commonwealth Games about to take place in
Delhi in a few days, the spotlight is on the Indian weightlifting team. Some of
India’s weightlifters have been accused of substance abuse in the past and a few of them received bans. The first instance of doping was found in 2004, when the two coaches were fired for giving athletes under their charge illegal
substances to enhance their performance. Apparently the coaches had given several players on the Indian team injections and these were believed to contain banned substances in them. The team was disgraced and banned from participating in the 2004 Olympics
in Athens.
In 2008, another scandal hit the Indian weightlifting team when the only participant from the country to qualify for the Olympics in
Beijing, tested positive for banned substances. For Laishram Monika Devi, it seems the story went a little deeper than simply doping. She claimed that her rival had bribed the Indian Weightlifting Federation to pick her over Devi and
they had levelled this charge on her. Whatever the case was, she did not compete that year.
The problem is not limited to the Indian team though. In 2008 again, the Greek team was banned from taking part in the Beijing Olympics because 11 members of its weightlifting team, 5 men and 6 women, tested positive for
using banned substances. Something went seriously wrong with the Greek weightlifting team that year and they may never be able to repair their tattered image. That same year, the entire Bulgarian team was barred from taking part in the Olympics because all
eight men and three women tested positive for using banned substances. In the wake of the findings and the bans, the Bulgarian government stripped its Weightlifting Federation of its sporting license. Two of the athletes were given life bans and the others
were sentenced to four years each.
Even though it is not prevalent in every country, doping seems to be a big problem for the sport of weightlifting at the moment. Hopefully with more stringent testing and harsher punishments for abuser in the future, the
sport can rid itself of the problem once and for all. It does seem to be the case though that no matter how harsh the punishment or how many athletes are caught and punished, some people will always try to cheat the system and that will never change.
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