Russian weightlifter Tatyana Kashirina was stripped of three world titles and the heaviest lifts in women’s history in a doping case.
Kashirina, 32, was given a retroactive ban of all her results from April 2013 to June 2017, which included world titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and world-record lifts in the super heavyweight division at the 2014 Worlds.
She was also banned eight years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Kashirina, who took silver in her lone Olympic appearance in 2012, was first reported by Russian media to have been banned in a doping case in December 2020, citing data from a Moscow laboratory database of test results from 2012-15.
All six original Russian Olympic weightlifting medalists from the 2012 London Games have since had their medals stripped or been suspended for doping.
In September 2022, Russian media reported that domestic authorities dropped charges against her, and she resumed competing domestically.
Then this past Aug. 28, CAS reversed that decision and delivered the sanctions.
CAS upheld appeals by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency, which disputed the previous RUSADA disciplinary committee decision to clear her.
There is precedent for organizations to dispute decisions made by their own disciplinary committees in doping cases.
Kashirina said that she lacks the money to challenge the ban, according to Match TV.
At the 2014 Worlds, Kashirina lifted world records of 155kg (341 pounds) in the snatch and 193kg (425 pounds) in the clean and jerk, also giving her a world record total of 348kg (767 pounds).
Kashirina previously failed a drug test at age 15 in 2006 and was suspended for two years.
The International Weightlifting Federation changed its weight divisions in 2018, creating new world record categories. The women’s super heavyweight class is now 87kg and over (it was 75kg and over for Kashirina’s 2014 world records).
The new women’s super heavyweight world records are 148kg in the snatch, 187kg in the clean and jerk and 335kg total, all set by China’s Li Wenwen at the April 2021 Asian Championships.
Li competes at this year’s worlds in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
