The Court of Arbitration for Sport – CAS decided on Thursday, June 16, to sanction former weightlifting champion, Nicu Vlad, with lifetime ineligibility. The decision enters into force on the same day.
According to the international court’s press release, Nicu Vlad is found to have committed violations of Article 2.8 of the 2009 International Weightlifting Anti-Doping Rules (complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation).
Nicu Vlad is the current president of the Romanian Weighlifting Federation and the former president of the International Federation. He is sentenced because, during his term as an international official, he had been involved in tampering with the doping control process and complicity in anti-doping rule violations involving multiple weightlifting athletes for years since 2012.
The decision came after, in 2021, Romania was banned from participating in the Olympic Games in Tokyo with the weightlifters for doping.
Nicu Vlad is one of the world;’s most famous and appreciated weightlifters. In the 1980s, he dominated the international competitions. He brought Romania many gold, silver and bronze medals in international competitions, including the Olympic Games and the European and World Championships.
He got famous for his unique style of deadlifting, hence the technique named after he first used it during the international competitions: Romanian deadlift. Now, his glorious name takes a severe hit, and his legacy might be stained.
Photo source: Romanian Weightlifting Federation
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