CAS upholds four-year period of ineligibility on Lyu Xiaojun

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport has partially upheld a request for arbitration filed by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) against China's Olympic weightlifting champion Lyu Xiaojun.

According to media release from CAS on Thursday, the sole arbitrator in charge of this case found that Lyu had committed antidoping rule violations (ADRV), by using recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO), under Article 2.1 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules (ADR). Therefore, a four-year suspension normally applies unless the athlete can prove that the ADRV was not intentional.

The sole arbitrator noted that Lyu did not put forth any arguments with respect to a potential lack of intent. Lyu's case was that he did not commit an ADRV and should be acquitted of all charges. He did not put forward any alternative reasoning as to why the period of ineligibility to be imposed on him should be reduced, in the event that he is found guilty of an ADRV.

Lyu was subject to an out-of-competition doping control on Oct. 30, 2022. On Dec. 20, 2022, the International Testing Agency (ITA) on behalf of the IWF informed Lyu of an adverse analytical finding and a provisional suspension was imposed with immediate effect.

In May 2024, the IWF filed a request for arbitration with the CAS Anti-Doping Division requesting that Lyu be sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of four years. A hearing was held by video conference on April 2, 2025.

Lyu was crowned world champion five times and won the 2012 Olympic men's 77kg and 2020 Olympic men's 81kg golds. He has also been confirmed by the International Weightlifting Federation as the 2016 Olympic men's 77kg winner, since Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan was stripped of the gold due to a doping violation.

The arbitrator acknowledged that the filing of the case to CAS was delayed for reasons not attributable to Lyu and decided to backdate the start of the period of ineligibility to Oct. 30, 2022, the day when the sample leading to the ADRV was collected.

According to CAS, all competitive results of Lyu from and including Oct. 30, 2022 to Dec. 20, 2022 - representing the start date of Lyu's provisional suspension - are disqualified with all resulting consequences, including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes. Enditem