2017 IWF World Championships

IWF Issues 1 Year Ban For 9 Countries Including Russia, Kazakhstan, China

IWF Issues 1 Year Ban For 9 Countries Including Russia, Kazakhstan, China

The IWF has banned nine countries for one year due to the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games retests, including Russia, China, and Kazakhstan.

Sep 30, 2017 by Armen Hammer
IWF Issues 1 Year Ban For 9 Countries Including Russia, Kazakhstan, China
Today the International Weightlifting Federation announced that all nine countries with three or more anti-doping violations from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic sample retests will serve a one year suspension. 

These are the nine countries who will be banned:

  • ​Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Belarus
  • China
  • Moldova
  • Kazakhstan
  • Russia
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

The suspensions are scheduled to begin in mid-October and the biggest and most impactful result of this is that none of these countries can field athletes at the 2017 IWF World Championships later this year in Anaheim. This is going to have a massive effect on the medals and standings at the World Championships. 

To put this in perspective, 27 of the 45 medals from the 2015 IWF World Championships went to athletes from one of those nine countries and their teams accounted for a large portion of the top ten in every weight class as well. This will open up huge opportunities for other countries in the medal count, especially the United States.