The weightlifting teams of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus could be banned from the Rio Olympics for anti-doping violations.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said the ban related to the re-testing of samples taken at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
The implementation of a one-year ban must first be ratified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“Only clean athletes should be able to compete,” an IWF statement said.
Weightlifting’s governing body has yet to name the athletes whose samples have been re-tested.
The IWF announced it would hand bans to “national federations confirmed to have produced three or more anti-doping rule violations in the combined re-analysis process” of samples taken from Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
The statement followed confirmation last week that four London 2012 Olympic weightlifting champions from Kazakhstan, including four-time world champion Ilya Ilyin, had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Six other lifters who competed at the 2012 Games have also tested positive after hundreds of samples were reanalysed.
Last week, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) decided not to lift the suspension of Russian track and field athletes, which was imposed in November following accusations of state-sponsored doping.
On Tuesday, the IOC opened the door for some athletes to go to this summer’s Olympic Games, if they could prove they were clean.
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