CAS Bans Chinese Taipei Weightlifter for Eight Years

(ATR) The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) bans a former weightlifting world record holder for an additional six years for a second doping offense.

Tzu-Chi Lin of Chinese Taipei, who broke two world records in the women’s 63kg category at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, was originally banned for two years by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC) after she tested positive for steroids in an out-of-competition doping control on June 24, 2016.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed that decision to CAS in June 2018, arguing that since this was her second doping offense the ban should have been for eight years.

CAS, in its ruling, said it found that Lin "had indeed committed a second anti-doping rule violation and determined that she should receive an eight year ban".

Lin, who is 30, will be credited "for any prior period of provisional suspension or ineligibility" but the new ruling effectively ends her career.The new sanction began on November 14, 2018, though CAS ruled that any competitive results from and including June 24, 2016 are disqualified.

The decision will not require any reallocation of medals from the 2016 Olympics. Lin was pulled from the 63kg event in Rio de Janeiro hours before it was set to begin. The CTOC said they suspended Lin at the time after learning she had failed a doping test.

Lin also missed the London 2012 Games while serving a two-year ban after a failed drugs test in 2010.

Homepage photo: Getty Images

Written by Gerard Farek

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