The International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) former Hungarian President Tamás Aján has been banned for life by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for sweeping doping cases under the carpet during his terms as IWF president, reports insidethegames.biz.
Aján was banned together with Romania’s Nicu Vlad, who won Olympic gold in the men’s 90 kilograms event at Los Angeles 1984.
The pair were charged with
Eighty-three-year-old Aján was elected IWF president in 2000, and was an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member. He also served as IWF’s general secretary for 24 years, holding high office at the organization since 1976.
He resigned in April 2020 following a fact-finding article by the German broadcaster ARD which alleged that the official was involved in covering up doping, financial misconduct and purchase of votes when electing IWF officials.
These sanctions follow a request from the International Testing Agency (ITA). According to ITA’s findings, in 29 cases of doping in the past the federation had failed to impose sanctions and destroyed evidence. The ITA report pointed to a lack of administrative controls, slack registries, a chaotic organizational structure, as well as indifference, negligence and in the worst cases, a deliberate covering up of criminal activities.
featured image via MTI/EPA/Igor Kovalenko