Ilya Ilyin's Ban Is Up In June 2018

Ilya Ilyin's Ban Is Up In June 2018

Two-time Olympic Champion Ilya Ilyin's can compete again in June 2018 after a two-year ban due to positive tests from 2008 and 2012.

Jan 13, 2018 by Armen Hammer
Ilya Ilyin's Ban Is Up In June 2018

Two-time Olympic Champion Ilya Ilyin (KAZ) has officially been suspended for two years, starting June of 2016, for his anti-doping violations from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Ilyin's samples from the 2012 and 2008 Olympics — where he took gold at both — tested positive for banned substances when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) retested those samples.

According to Inside The Games, since Ilyin was not notified of his first violation in Beijing before committing his second violation in London, his London violation cannot count as a second violation.

On top of that, the rules in 2008 and 2012 stipulate a two-year sanction for a first violation for using "non-specified substances."

Ilyin was first provisionally suspended in June of 2016, and the proceedings have taken the better half of 18 months, but it seems now that Ilyin's suspension will officially end in June of 2018. 

In November, the four-time world champion made it clear he's looking to get back into the sport and believed he had a 90 percent chance of returning. Now that there is a potential return, the 29-year-old will have to wait out Kazakhstan's one-year ban (which should be up in October) before he can compete internationally again. 

Is it possible that Ilya's first major competition returning from his bans are the 2018 World Championships? That'd be something.