Finnish Weightlifting Association to websites appeared at the end of January 2022 multiple prize winner Miika Antti-Roikon gratifying news in terms of According to the release, Kalajoen Junkkari, who had already packed up his active career years earlier, would become the bronze medalist of the push in 2013 at the European Championships held in Tirana, Albania, through post-analysis of doping tests.
Antti-Roiko, who initially pushed for fifth, had already been cleared in front of Azerbaidzhan Intigam Zairov. Now also for the one who represented Russia, who won both the combined result, the rapture and the push in Tirana to Rinat Kirejev it was getting cold.
According to the McLaren Commission of Inquiry, which investigated structural and state-led doping in Russia, Kireyev was not eligible to represent at the European Championships in 2013 in the first place due to previous doping violations.
Star Wars paused
A year and a half earlier, Antti-Roiko’s official brother who completed his master’s degree in economics Eero Retulainen was on assignment from his employer at the time in Copenhagen. He was sitting on the couch of his apartment and watching the movie Star Wars when a message came from Finland from a fellow lifter. In 2018, Retulainen became a medalist at the European Championships held in Bucharest in the same 94 kg category where Antti-Roiko represented Finland.
Lithuania Zygimantas Stanulis the doping sample was found to be positive in the post-analysis, which raised Retulainen’s push to third place at the EC.
The same Stanulis from Lithuania took silver in the 2013 European Championships in the combined result, push and grab, so after the rejections of Kirejev’s performance, he should basically be a three-time champion from the Tirana Games, as macabre as it is.
“Unfair situation”
But the truth is different in the world of weightlifting. Neither Antti-Roiko nor Retulainen have ever seen the medals that rightfully belong to them. The matter belongs to the continental organization of the International Weightlifting Federation IWF, i.e. the European Weightlifting Federation EWF.
Its General Secretary, Dr Milan Mihajlovic admits that the medals that were originally awarded on wrong grounds have not even been removed from the trophy cabinets of doping athletes yet. Mihajlovic tells Urheilu that the situation is completely unreasonable for Finnish lifters.
– When the IWF and EWF and the ITA (the independent anti-doping agency of the International Weightlifting Federation) are involved in the process, it takes a lot of time to handle things, years at worst. EWF sincerely regrets the situation of the Finns and the fact that the medals have not been delivered to their rightful owners. In the eyes of the EWF, these Finns are prestigious competition medalists, Mihajlovic stated in his written response to the request for comments.
According to the general secretary, the redistribution of medals proceeds according to the rules, so that first the medals have to be taken away from the athletes to whom they have been wrongfully distributed. After this, they can be redistributed to the lifters who gave clean doping samples.
Investigation work is now underway to change the operating method so that completely new medals would be awarded to those who were raised as medalists due to doping violations, and the old ones would be taken away from those who failed due to chemical training later.
At least it’s not that doping is a rarity in top international weightlifting. In the years 2018-2022 alone, there is IWF’s own according to the pages, punishments were handed out or suspected cases were put under investigation huge amounts.
Finns are no strangers to ex post award ceremonies. Moukarijatti Olli-Pekka from Karelia became the 2006 European champion thanks to post-doping testing years later when the original champion, a Belarusian Ivan Tihon were removed from the results. He received his gold medal in 2014 in connection with the Sweden national match at the Olympic Stadium, as a retired athlete.
Less well remembered is the current chairman of the Weightlifting Association Karoliina Lundahl didn’t get his 1994 World Championship gold until 1995. The then president of the International Weightlifting Federation Tamas Ajan went to Finland to reward Lundahl, when the Chinese lifter’s sample had been positive.
The specialty of Lahti World Ski Championships in 2017 was the javelin thrower Antti Ruuskanen organized medal ceremony. Pielavetinen’s Olympic bronze from 2012 changed to silver for his Ukrainian racing brother Oleksandr Pyatnytsyan after the sample later proved positive in doping archeological investigations.
Finland used its seams
Including Retulainen’s bronze, Finland won no less than four medals from the 2018 European Championships, of which Meri Ilmarinen already got two and Anni Vuohijoki one. The success was also largely due to the fact that, although there is a significant doping problem in weightlifting, the international federation has not stood up to it.
– Due to doping violations, a significant number of top countries were missing from the Games, which we already knew before the Games, that now it is the seam of our clean lifters, says the Head of Training of the Weightlifting Association Jarno Tiainenwho has been in contact with EWF many times about the missing medals of Finnish men.
Tiainen is very sorry for Antti-Roiko’s and Retulainen’s situation and reminds that in a small sport it is a completely different thing to market yourself to sponsors and those who distribute public grants as a prize medalist or a non-prize medalist.
– Hypothetically, the continuation of the entire career could depend on it, and that is why such delays are very unfair and unreasonable.
The IWF’s line is tough. If three or more lifters from a certain country are caught doping during the Olympics, the ITA anti-doping panel will likely cut the quota places that one country can get to the Olympics to a maximum of six (three men and three women).
If the doping violations during the Olympics are of such a nature that the consequence is a suspension of four years or longer, the entire country can be banned from the Olympic Games or other prestigious competitions. At the moment, the trigger is, for example, the entry of the Ukrainian team to the Paris Games next summer.
The wife’s heavy speech
Urheilu meets Eero Retulainen in Hakaniemi, Helsinki, at the Tempaus-arena, where the ex-racer, who works in an investment bank, coaches his wife.
The husband gathers a lot of well-wishers. Saara Retulainen returned recently From the European Championships in Sofia, the bronze medalist and the silver medalist of the push and pull in the 59 kg weight class. He is firmly attached to the Olympic place in Paris.
The wife has very serious things to say about the injustice that befell her husband.
– I am by no means the first competition medalist in our family. There should be three medals in the family, not two. Eero should have received his medal right away, but the fact that he still hasn’t received it is extremely unfair, says the spouse, who says that he was not at all surprised by the doping scandal of the Lithuanian Stanulis.
Eero Retulainen, who has been extremely successful in working life, says that it is not a matter of life and death for him, but he states that he considers the medal so important that he is happy to talk about the unfinished process in public.
– I will by no means get hung up on this kind of thing, but without a doubt the execution of justice at that time would have been good for my self-esteem as an athlete – that I would have reached the end of something and not always just close. I can believe that I will still get my medal. Of course, this story of mine does not diminish my joy at Saara’s wonderful success, quite the opposite.
Miika Antti-Roiko, who lives in Oulu and currently coaches weightlifters of various levels, is not as optimistic as Retulainen.
– As soon as I saw the corrected results, I believed in it, but it’s been more than two years and nothing much has been heard.
A huge redistribution
Antti-Roiko says that turning the matter one way or the other does not really affect his life.
– I ended my career in 2017, so there is no acute significance. I heard from the weightlifting association quite recently that the matter is under investigation, so maybe my faith is now stronger than last year.
Doping samples given in value competitions can be tested for 10 years. Because laboratory technical analysis expertise always develops drastically over such a long period of time, medals have been awarded so many times in many sports that no one has kept up with the bills. For example, the attached article gives a descriptive example.
Antti-Roiko says that he understands what is being sought with subsequent testing.
– The idea and purpose is certainly good. But the distance traveled after the competition and the distance in time means that the athlete no longer achieves the feeling of success and euphoria that he set out to get in the first place. That opportunity came and went.