**IWF Follow-up On Widespread Doping Among Thai Athletes**
Budapest. 6 January 2019: Following an update from the International
Testing Agency, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) can
report that cases against ten (10) Thai athletes have now been closed.
Between them, the athletes had been the subject of seventeen (17)
adverse analytical findings. Anti-doping rule violations have been
established in all cases and sanctions consisting of suspensions
between 18 months and four years have been established.
Consistent with the IWF’s commitment to transparency in anti-doping
issues, further details of the cases can be found at:
https://www.iwf.net/anti-doping/sanctions/
A number of adverse analytical findings were first established on the
basis of samples provided during the 2018 IWF World Weightlifting
Championships. These samples did not initially return adverse
analytical findings, but a robust and intelligence-based approach
(evaluation of the Athletes’ Biological Passport) saw the samples
retested for the long-term metabolites of anabolic steroids: a
methodology whose widespread implementation has been pioneered by the
IWF and the IOC.
Following the revelation of widespread doping among Thai athletes, a
number of them juniors, Thai athletes were withdrawn from competition,
including the 2019 IWF World Championships. Thai athletes have not
subsequently participated in Olympic Qualifying events and will not be
present at Tokyo 2020. The IWF has resisted pressure for any early
return to competition.
Furthermore, based on further retesting, the Thai athlete who had won
a gold medal at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games was proven
to have committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation and has also been
sanctioned. The number of confirmed cases means that the independent
Member Federation Sanctions Panel will now consider sanctions against
the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association as a whole.
On 5 January, German TV channel ARD broadcast a show in which a
former Thai weightlifter, Rattikan GULNOI appeared to have implicated
herself and other Thai weightlifters in doping. The IWF has
immediately followed up with the Thai Federation. The IWF has also
requested copies of ARD’s materials.
The widespread abuse of the same anabolic agent, especially among
juniors, in Thailand would appear to be indicative of an organised
system of doping that may have extending beyond the sanctioned
athletes themselves. This impression would appear to have been
reinforced by the apparent confession secured by ARD. The IWF will now
confer with WADA and the International Testing Agency, in order to
establish whether a wider investigation may be appropriate.
IWF PRESS RELEASE
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Publication of the IWF
President Dr. Tamas Ajan
