ICYMI: Heavy Lifting for Acting Weightlifting Chief; New Olympics Media Ops Director

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ATR First: Heavy Lifting for Acting Weightlifting Chief

An independent investigator into possible scandal at the International Weightlifting Federation should be named this week Acting President Ursula Papandrea tells Around the Rings.

Papandrea was chosen a week ago to lead the IWF on an interim basis while an inquiry into allegations involving President Tamas Ajan is carried out.

Ajan, 81, has been with the IWF for a half century, president since 2000. Papandrea, 51, competed in the sport for three decades and was until this month the president of USA Weightlifting. She was serving as a vice president of the IWF when she was selected by the board Jan. 22 to take over from Ajan for a 90 day period.

Ajan is spotlighted in a documentary from German TV channel ARD that attacks the federation for it’s profligate doping problems. The allegations also include charges that until 2010, Ajan was the sole signatory on bank accounts that received money for the IWF from the IOC.

"We still don’t have evidence in our hands. But what we do have are claims by others that there is evidence. If that is the case this changes what has been rumor and suspicion into something that must be looked at," Papandrea tells ATR as she prepared to embark on a month of IWF travel from her home in Texas.

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Olympics Media Vet Heads Olympic Media Ops

Lucia de Montanarella has been a key to smooth media operations at every Olympics since the Turin 2006 Winter Games in her native Italy.

The Olympic veteran is named Olympic Games Media Operations Director for the IOC just two days after predecessor Anthony Edgar retired from the post after 18 years.

Montanarella was a reporter at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics before joining Sydney 2000 on the media staff. She has worked on nearly every Olympics since then either as a mentor for the IOC Young Reporters program or as an executive with the organizing committee.

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Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.