On December 21, Russia's TASS news agency reported that five-time weightlifting world champion Tatiana Kashrina was temporarily suspended for violating doping regulations.
Kashrina was the silver medalist in the women's weightlifting category over 75 kg at the 2012 London Olympics, when it was China's Zhou Lulu. Kashrina has won the World Championships five times, four times in the over 75 kg class and once in the over 87 kg class, and she is also the winner of the European Championships eight times. Kashrina is considered one of the most likely athletes to compete for gold in the women's 87 kg or over at the Tokyo Olympics and is also considered to be one of the most likely to compete with Li Wenwen for the title.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) obtained doping test results from Russian athletes from Moscow laboratories during the investigation, and Kashrina, 29, was temporarily suspended for the report. Under the current penalty, Kashlina will miss the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers, which are expected to end in April next year. In 2006, Kashrina was only 15 years old and was banned for two years for doping violations. Kashrina also faces a ban of up to eight years under existing rules because she is already in her second doping violation.
Kashrina declined to answer questions about TASS. The president of the Russian Weightlifting Federation, Maxim Agabitov, also declined to comment when contacted by Olympic insiders.
In April, the World Anti-Doping Agency completed an investigation into the Moscow laboratory database and forwarded details of 298 alleged crimes to 27 different anti-doping agencies, including the International Weightlifting Federation. The International Weightlifting Federation has referred all of its anti-doping procedures to the International Testing Agency (ITA), which deals with historical cases as well as recently test-positive samples. About 60 Russian weightlifters are implicated, some of whom have been temporarily suspended or whose cases are pending. There is also a world champion, Albertov, the 2013 and 2014 World Championships in the men's 105 kg and above.
The Russian Olympic team originally had the opportunity to send one male and female athletes to the Tokyo Olympics in the weightlifting event, while other associations could send up to 4 men and 4 women. Last week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided to ban Russia for two years, but eligible players can compete as neutral players, and Kashrina had the hope of becoming the only female athlete to participate in the Olympics, and her dialogue with Li Wenwen was also one of the highlights of this level.
Kashrina is banned, with Usa's Sarah Robles likely to be the beneficiary, new Zealand's transgender Hubbard also benefiting, and both have a chance to compete for medals. The biggest favourites in this category are China's Lee Wen-wen and North Korea's Kim Kwok-heung.
In recent years, weightlifting has become a high-incidence of doping, coupled with the continuous scandals within the International Weightlifting Federation, weightlifting has been cut off in four events at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and the number of participants has been reduced by 30%. Previously, when the media reported on this matter, it was directly described as "self-insulting".