A few months from now, the world will gather once again for the Olympic Games. The 2020 Games will take place in Tokyo, and weightlifting will be there as usual. As you probably know, weightlifting is one of the original Olympic sports, going all the way back to the inaugural games of 1896. That means we’ve managed to stay in the big dance for over 120 years. Not a bad accomplishment, I must say.
 
Every four years, I like to write a pre-Olympics state-of-the-union article where I analyze and explain the weightlifting landscape, make some predictions, and draw attention to any controversy that might be hovering around. Our sport never disappoints when it comes to controversy, and 2020 is no exception. Actually, I take that back. 2020 IS an exception. Want to know why? Because right now, we’ve probably got more controversy surrounding weightlifting than any other point in history. In our current moment of time, the sport is literally experiencing one bombshell after another, almost on a weekly basis.
 
What is all the hullabaloo about? Doping, as always. Performance-enhancing drug use is the center of drama and ruckus in weightlifting. It’s been this way since the 1980s. Those of us who have been in the game for decades are used to it. However, the last four years have been different.
 
The doping issue has escalated drastically, and heads have rolled. Individuals (and entire countries) have been booted out of international competition for their doping peccadillos. Politicians have been placed on the hot seat. The International Olympic Committee has once again started conversations about kicking weightlifting out of the Olympic Games. To state it mildly, this Olympic quad has been an ongoing tornado of uproar. And it’s far from over.
 
Much of this has benefited the United States. Those of you who follow the sport as fans (which is probably most of you) have watched with glee as some of our top American lifters have risen to international prominence. We’ve ever got a few youngsters on our national team who qualify as “stars” in the weightlifting world.
 
In this article, I want to explore some of this and make you aware of what’s on the horizon. You’re all invested in this sport, to some degree. The fact that you’re reading this magazine tells me that. Many of you read these articles each month because you want to know more about snatch technique, programming, nutrition, recovery, etc. Those things have always been well covered in Performance Menu, by me and several others. However, you need to understand that your personal involvement in this sport could be heavily impacted by the things that are currently happening at the international level. You might be a million miles away from the Olympic Games, but the potential shakeups we’re up against could have long-reaching implications that extend all the way down to you.
 
So let’s talk about it. Where America is at, where the sport is at, how it all got here, where it could go, and how it can play into your weightlifting life.
 
The United States Olympic Weightlifting Team
 
Let me break a few things down with bullet points. I think it’ll be easier to understand this way:

• Steroid use is a major issue in Olympic weightlifting.
• Steroid use is against the rules of the sport.
• Most of the top weightlifting countries from Europe and Asia take steroids and get away with it. They’ve been doing this for decades.
• Almost all of the top national team weightlifters in the United States don’t take steroids. They’re clean. We have dopers in this country, but they’re almost entirely at the lower competition levels. Our international team members aren’t on drugs. That’s why they’ve typically placed poorly at the World Championships and Olympics in the past. Clean weightlifters usually don’t beat drugged weightlifters.
• Over the last five years, drug testing has gotten a lot stronger at the international level. More dopers are being caught than ever before. This has allowed American weightlifters to climb closer to the top of the world rankings. Since 2016, we’ve had two Senior World Champions and multiple silver/bronze medalists, several Junior World Champions and record-holders, and dozens of champions and medalists at other international competitions. In a nutshell, more and more dopers have been getting popped, and American weightlifting has risen closer to the top as a result.

 
In a few months, the US Olympic Team will be finalized. Our selection process for picking the team is extremely complex, so I’m not going to outline it here. But based on what I know, I think we’ve already got some solid information about who’s likely to be on it.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: I’m not on the selection committee for our Olympic Team, so none of this is concrete info. PLEASE don’t think any of this is carved in stone. It’s not. I’m pretty close with some of the people who are on the inside with our national system, and this is all just based on informal conversations we’ve had. So don’t take any of this to the bank.
 
On the women’s side, I’m pretty sure Kate Nye is already locked in for the Olympic Team. She’s the current World Champion, so I sure as hell HOPE she’s locked in. If we have a selection process that creates a situation where a current World Champion can be left off the team, we need to have our heads examined. Two-time Olympian Sarah Robles is also in a very strong position with a good chance of making her third team.
 
Mattie Rogers has had an interesting road, to say the least. Back in 2016, she looked like the future of US weightlifting and a lock for Tokyo 2020. And she hasn’t disappointed, winning multiple medals at top international competitions over the last three years. When Kate Nye’s results started to explode in 2018, it looked like Mattie’s hopes might be in trouble. But she came roaring back with a silver medal at the 2019 Worlds, and she’s currently in a good position for Tokyo. Other rising superstars like Jordan Delacruz are also sticking their noses into the mix, trying to secure that final women’s spot on the team.
 
With our men’s team, it’s still a bit more wide open as of February 2020. CJ Cummings, as you can probably guess, is most likely going to be on the Olympic Team. Fellow wunderkind Harrison Maurus is obviously a main contender as well. After that, we’ve got a small pack of guys who have been crushing it for Team USA at the international level for most of this quad, like Wes Kitts and Caine Wilkes. As I mentioned, nothing is final yet, so we’ll all have to wait and see who gets their ticket punched officially after April. But according to what we’ve seen at this point, these are some of the names we could likely see in Tokyo.
 
How will they do when they get to Tokyo? That question is more interesting than it typically has been when our US teams have prepared for the Olympics in the past. For the last few decades, making the Olympic Team and getting to participate in the Games has been the big dream for US lifters. Winning medals usually hasn’t been on the radar. But now, we’ve actually got a few possibilities to bring home some hardware, and it’s happening because the not-even-close-to-level playing field of international weightlifting has tilted a little bit. Let’s take a look at it.
 
Housecleaning…
Once again, bullet points:

• Weightlifting has been an Olympic sport since 1896.
• Weightlifters have been taking drugs (steroids) to enhance their performance since sometime around the 1960s or maybe a little earlier.
• These drugs have been against the rules in weightlifting since the late 1970s, when drug testing started.
• Drug testing has been largely ineffective throughout the last four decades. Most of the top weightlifting countries in the world have found ways to cheat and get away with it.
• The organization that controls the sport is the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).
• The IWF has historically done almost nothing to fight drug use in weightlifting. In many cases, IWF officials have enabled, allowed, and contributed to it. Many of the IWF’s top officers are from the same countries that have the worst doping records. They protect the drug system and fight to make sure their lifters don’t get punished for their cheating. It’s a very, very, very dirty sport.
• Over the last 10 years, weightlifting’s popularity has exploded, which has resulted in more attention to the drug issue than ever before. Back when nobody cared about weightlifting, nobody cared about the drug problem (except clean lifters who were getting screwed, and nobody cared about them, either). But now, weightlifting is a big deal, so the doping issue is big news.
• Public realization of the depth and severity of weightlifting’s doping problem have led to a massive escalation of efforts to catch cheaters and clean up the sport. The old “wink and nod” treatment of weightlifting doping has been replaced with a crusade to nail drug users.
• This escalation of efforts has uncovered the grimy truths of our sport. Countries like Russia, China, and several others have government-sponsored doping programs. Many of these countries start giving kids steroids when they’re 13 or younger. Almost every single top weightlifter from Europe and Asia is on drugs.
• Over the last few years, the International Olympic Committee has been threatening to remove weightlifting from the Olympics because of the sport’s drug problem. We’ve been able to dodge the bullet by catching and suspending a ton of drug cheats, which has made us look like a corrupt sport that’s trying hard to clean itself up. But a few months ago, a German documentary film was released that delved into the weightlifting corruption that actually goes 10 levels deeper than most people even considered. Long story short, the general public has known for years that weightlifting is a dirty sport, but they haven’t really comprehended just HOW dirty it is. Now, it’s out in the open. And the IOC has resumed conversations about giving us the boot.
• This puts the United States in a peculiar position. Our chances to compete successfully in Tokyo are very strong. We’re not favored to sweep up a whole bucket of gold medals, but we’re definitely poised to place closer to the top than we have in a half-century. Medals are within our reach. And our national scene is bursting with hot new talents who are already showing signs of being the next Kates and CJs, so the future is brighter than ever…IF weightlifting can stay in the Olympic Games.

 
We’ll be golden, if the gold is still there
 
The future is uncertain for our sport. The IOC has been grumbling and fuming about weightlifting’s doping problem since the Bulgarian scandal of 1988, so it’s not new to hear conversations about booting us out of the Olympics. But I can tell you one thing for sure: the conversations are more serious now than they have been in the past. I’ve been deeply involved in this sport for over three decades, and I’ve never seen as much dialogue at the top levels about removing us from the Games. I’m telling you people, it could happen. I know it seems like it never would, but believe me, it could.
 
Are we being treated fairly by the IOC? Not really. We’re not the only dopers on the block, but we’re the only ones being threatened with removal. Cycling and track and field are dirtier than weightlifting, but you don’t see their heads getting shoved in a guillotine. That part isn’t fair. But are we being treated fairly from the perspective that our sport has been a cesspool of cheating for decades, and now the chickens are coming home to roost? Unfortunately, yes.
 
If our sport gets removed from the Olympics, it’ll change everything. It’s actually difficult to predict just how bad the damage would be because it’s too terrible to contemplate. Weightlifting wouldn’t evaporate from the planet, simply because there are still lots of people in the world who love doing snatches and clean and jerks. But there’s no way you can believe it wouldn’t be a crippling blow to take the “Olympic” out of Olympic weightlifting. Anybody who thinks otherwise is crazy.
 
Is there anything you can do to help? Sure there is. You can start by staying off drugs. I know, I know. This isn’t Sunday School, and it’s not my place to preach at you about how you should live your life. Yadda yadda yadda. I understand that. But I also understand the idea that every clean weightlifter in our sport contributes to a cleaner culture. You might not be able to clean up China, but you can keep your own backyard clean. That much I know for sure.
 
Will we survive? I don’t know. I hope we do, because the future will be sensational for America if we can weather the storm. Nobody believes doping will ever be completely eradicated from weightlifting, or any other sport. We know that. But you have to look at it the same way we look at cancer. There’s no cure, but efforts are being made every day to find new ways to fight it. New medications are being developed that give people a better chance of beating it. In other words, we have to just keep pushing back against it because it’s our fight for survival. Even if we never cure it, maybe we can live and thrive DESPITE it. That’s where we’re at in 2020. And just like cancer, it matters to all of us regardless of how close we are to it.