Three Olympic champions from China "are among 11 weightlifters who face being stripped of their medals after failing retests of their Beijing 2008 doping samples." The Int'l Weightlifting Federation said that the 11 medalists "tested positive for a range of banned substances." Among those to fail are Gold Medalists Cao Lei, Liu Chunhong and Chen Xiexia.
The other eight medalists to test positive "are from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine." Four other weightlifters from Beijing 2008, "who did not win medals, also failed retests" (BBC, 8/24). The Chinese Weightlifting Association said that "it was shocked by the news that three Chinese lifters were among the 15 lifters who have failed retests of their samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games." The CWA said that it will cooperate with the IWF in the investigation and "reiterated its stance of zero-tolerance on doping" (XINHUA, 8/24).
The Bermuda Paralympic Association "is waiting for a reimbursement" of nearly $9,000 from organizers, which BPA President Ann Lindroth "hopes arrives before the team departs for South America." Lindroth said that some $7M in grants that Rio Olympic organizers were due to make to the 165 participating countries in the Paralympics "are more than a month overdue," and as of Tuesday had still not arrived. Lindroth: "They are still saying they will be sending out the money" (ROYAL GAZETTE, 8/24).
AirAsia will provide "free flights for life" to all Association of Southeast Asian Nations athletes who won a Gold Medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In a statement, the airline added that those ASEAN athletes who won Silver and Bronze medals in their sport "would also be given free flights for five and two years respectively" (CNA, 8/24).
Japan, which will host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, "will mint two kinds" of 1,000 yen ($10) coins "to commemorate the handover" of the hosting of the Games from Rio to Tokyo. Both coins "depict cherry blossoms and ipe amarelo, flowers recognized as symbols of Japan and Brazil on the obverse side and the emblem of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on the reverse side." The Finance Ministry said that the silver coins "will be sold" for 9,500 yen ($94) each, reflecting manufacturing costs. The ministry "will issue 50,000 coins of each type" (KYODO, 8/24).
