Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt lifts during Rio 2016 Olympics. GETTY IMAGES

The weightlifting world has been weighed down once again by fresh potential doping scandals involving two weightlifters who participated in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The International Testing Agency (ITA) revealed that it had found adverse analytical findings from retests of 2016 samples submitted by Egypt’s bronze medalist Mohamed Mahmoud and fifth-placed Alexandr Spac of Moldova who failed a drug test at the 2017 European weightlifting championships.

The agency revealed that both had tested positive for a non-specified substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list but have the right to request a B-sample analysis.

The two weightlifters, neither of which will be competing in Paris, will face a doping violation if they refuse the option of a B-sample analysis.



In 2016, Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan caused one of the biggest shocks at the Rio Olympic Games when he broke a weightlifting world record lifting 214kg in the clean and jerk to claim gold.

At the time, Egypt’s Mohamed Mahmoud questioned the result saying "Maybe after some doping controls, some things will change" and in 2022 Rahimov was deemed to have used other athletes’ urine samples for anti-doping tests losing his gold medal along with five years of results.

With Mahmoud now at the centre of a fresh doping scandal of his own it could mean that medals from 2016 are reallocated with 1st, 3rd and 5th places all removed.

The reallocation would hand China's Xiaojun Lyu his third Olympic gold medal while Chatuphum Chinnawong of Thailand would be awarded silver and Andrés Caicedo of Colombia bronze having initially placed fourth and sixth respectively.

Xiaojun Lyu, Nijat Rahimov and Mohamed Mahmoud on a podium at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES.
Xiaojun Lyu, Nijat Rahimov and Mohamed Mahmoud on a podium at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES.

Doping violations have been ever present in the sport leading to the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) signing an agreement with USA Weightlifting and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in 2018 which sought to provide anti-doping education worldwide.

In 2021, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach threatened to drop weightlifting (along with boxing) altogether starting from the 2028 Olympics calling them “two problem children of the Olympic movement”.

Leadership changes, reforms and tougher doping rules then gave weightlifting an Olympic lifeline preserving its place at the 2028 Olympics provided the future scandals don’t add pressure to an already cumbersome reputation.