With global spotlight focused on Russian sports amid accusations of state-sponsored systematic doping of its track and field athletes, serious questions remain as to whether the country's other Olympic-caliber athletes are competing clean and how the fallout might affect upcoming international competitions, including the Weightlifting World Championships, taking place this month in Houston, TX.

In case you missed it, WADA's Independent Commission released their report yesterday stating that Russia's track and field program (and possibly other sports as well) were assisted by a systemic and state run doping ring designed to hide positive PED tests of high performing athletes and keep evidence out of the hands of international anti-doping agencies. The Commission's report specifically pointed to the Moscow laboratory (currently the only WADA compliant anti-doping lab in Russia) as a main player in this corruption, even mentioning that the Russian Secret Security forces FSB were also a consistent and intimidating presence in the lab.

That report also reveals that Russia has a "deeply rooted culture of cheating" and that "there are reliable indications that sports in Russia, other than athletics, are affected by doping." They found that FSB was a big presence at the Sochi Olympics, an event where Russia won 33 total medals more than doubling their medal count from the previous Winter Olympics.

In light of this, one must wonder what the impact will be on the Weightlifting World Championships, an event traditionally dominated by Russia and Eastern European nations. In the history of the weightlifting Worlds, Russia is 5th in the overall medal count and the Soviet Union is still in 1st.

A source has informed FloElite that Russia, as well as Germany and Bulgaria are likely to withdraw their top athletes from the World Championships for fear of getting flagged under the increased anti-doping scrutiny of WADA and USADA. The source also said that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan could follow suit because "WADA is on a mission now" and they'll "be waiting at the airport even before the competition."

If the withdrawals were to happen, it likely wouldn't be announced until the Verification of Final Entries meeting on November 18th, a couple days before the competition is slated to begin.

The effect this could have on the medals race is pretty huge, and considering this is an Olympic qualifying year there is a lot at stake. There are a handful of other qualifying meets between now and Rio, but none are as large as Worlds. Worlds will offer almost three times the number of spots as any other event. 

On top of that, even if a country does end up getting spots at Rio, athletes who want to lift there would need to have lifted in two Olympic qualifiers in the two years before the Olympics start and by missing the 2015 Worlds, they're banking on being able to lift at one of the remaining few meets if they haven't met that requirement yet.

Removing perennial powerhouses from the competition would only add to an already dramatic contest and between possible shake ups in Olympic qualifying spots and medals being up for grabs, the 2015 IWF World Championships are definitely going to be an exciting affair.

Update (11/14/15):

Germany will be sending a full men's team, but no women's team. This is because they can't score enough points so it's not worth it.

Bulgaria will not be participating at all. They've got outstanding fines (just over half a million dollars) which must be paid before their team is allowed back into international competition and they can't pay it off.

Russia still up in the air. We won't know anything for sure until the technical meeting Wednesday night.

Update (11/19/15):

The start lists have been released and Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan have all submitted teams.