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Romanian Weightlifting Team Expelled from Sydney
The Romanian weightlifting team was expelled from the Sydney Olympics with immediate effect on Sunday after three lifters failed drug tests this year.
International Olympic Committee director general Francois Carrard said the expulsion was ordered by the International Weightlifting Federation.
Under federation rules, any nation is suspended from competition for the rest of that year if three or more of its weightlifters test positive for banned drugs. A third Romanian weightlifter tested positive earlier this year.
Romanian weightlifters Traian Ciharean and Andrei Mateias were expelled from the Romanian team on Friday after failing pre-Games dope tests, while a third man, Razvan Ilie, was withdrawn from the Sydney team for doping earlier this year.
"The federation has a rule that if three test positive, the entire team is suspended," Carrard said.
Traian Ciharean, a bronze medalist at the Barcelona Olympics, and Adrian Mateias failed dope tests that were administered to all 257 Olympic weightlifters. They were expelled from their team.
According to the IWF, weightlifting is the only Olympic sport in which all athletes were tested for drugs before the Sydney Games.
Earlier this year, Razvan Ilie, a 1999 world champion in the snatch at 77 kilos (169} pounds), tested positive and was thrown off the team before the Olympics.
The Romanian weightlifting federation last year began automatically banning for life any lifter who fails a drug test.
Three weightlifters from Chinese Taipei have also tested positive this year but IWF secretary general Tamas Ajan said their case was different and they would not be subject to a year's ban.
He said this was because two of those who failed dope tests, women weightlifters Chen Jui-lien and Wu Mei-yi, had been tested by their organization only.
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