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Board member Antonio Urso, president of the European Weightlifting Federation and one of the biggest advocates of the fight against sports corruption, resigned shortly after the IMF elected Britain’s Mike Irani as interim president, the third in three. days.
“The reason for the decision is that I no longer share the political line of the board, which I consider crazy and destructive to weightlifting in the future,” the Italian wrote in an email to all board members, according to the Insidethegames site.
Clean up after Aján
In 2017, Urso challenged the acting president, Tamás Aján, for the IMF presidency, but lost. Perhaps because of Aján’s vote-buying, who earlier this year was forced to resign after ruling the union with an iron fist for 44 years. An investigation showed that the Hungarian bought votes, concealed 40 positive doping tests and was suspected of corruption when there was a lack of coverage for almost 100 million Swedish crowns in the IWF.
American Ursula Papandrea was appointed acting president tasked with cleaning up after Aján. It was supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which earlier this week said that weightlifting is close to being excluded from the Paris 2024 Olympic program because reform is too slow.
On Tuesday, she was fired because she was too open and honest with the IOC.
“I have always been very honest with the IOC about the intentions and actions of the IMF,” she told Insidethegames.
Reforms prevented
He said his own union had prevented reforms, detained independent specialists and lied about his intentions.
– I have heard some of them say that “we just have to tell the IOC that we must introduce reforms, without actually doing it,” said Papandrea.
When Papandrea was ousted, Vice President Intarat Yodbangtoey, Thailand, took over as Acting President. However, there was a protest over the appointment and Yodbangtoey was forced to step down after just 48 hours. Thailand has had many cases of doping in weightlifting and has been prevented from participating in the Olympics next year. Yodbangtoey has also been seen in the investigation into Aján as closely related to the former president and is accused in the report of being the one who made the vote purchases for Aján.
When is a new president elected?
Right now, the International Weightlifting Federation is led by Britain’s Mike Irani. Seven of the 18 board members come from countries that are excluded from the Tokyo Olympics next year or have had their cut-off quota active due to doping.
What is happening now is unclear. Iran’s own alliance, the British, said the other day that they wanted the entire IMF board to resign. A dozen member countries have said they want to push the presidential elections, scheduled for congress in March, to December to save the Olympic future of the sport. Others, led by the United States, want the IOC to take control of the sport as a way out of the crisis.
MORE SO: The Tokyo Olympics Begin, And Money Is No Problem (September 15, 2020)
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