IWF sanction against Ilya Ilyin maximum allowed under World Anti-Doping Code
The Hearing Panel of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) concluded disciplinary proceedings against Ilya Ilyin and applied the greatest possible sanction against the athlete that is permitted (two years of ineligibility) under the World Anti-Doping Code.
Although the Athlete committed Anti-Doping Rule Violations both at the Beijing and the London Olympic Games, IWF had no other choice but to consider the two violations as one according to the applicable rules.
Under the IWF Anti-Doping Policies based on the World Anti-Doping Code applicable at the time of the Beijing and London Olympic Games which state “an anti-doping rule violation will only be considered a second violation if the anti-doping organization can establish that the athlete or other Person committed the second anti- doping rule violation after the athlete or other Person received notice pursuant to Article 7, or after the anti-doping organization made reasonable efforts to give notice of the first anti-doping rule violation. If the anti-doping organization cannot establish this, the violations shall be considered together as one single first violation, and the sanction imposed shall be based on the violation that carries the more severe sanction.” (World Anti-Doping Code. Article 10.7.4.1). Since the athlete had not been notified of the first violation (Beijing 2008) before committing the second (London 2012) the violation committed in London cannot be treated as a second violation.
The IWF is keen to impose sanctions which correspond to the damage brought to its sport, and is reaching out to WADA and the IOC to discuss possibilities for the future to consider relevant rules to be changed and deal with the result of reanalysis programs similar to those of Beijing and London in a different manner. The IWF is committed to protecting clean athletes and is implementing the most robust anti-doping measures to address the incidence of doping.
However, Ilya Ilyin remains ineligible to compete according to the “Tbilisi Decision”, until the suspension of the Kazakh Weightlifting Federation comes to end on 19 October 2018.