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Four more weightlifting teams face Olympic ban

The Christ the Redeemer statue stands above the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
(Yasuyoshi Chiba / Getty Images)
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At this rate, there might not be any weightlifters left to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

On Friday, the sport’s international federation announced that three more athletes – from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey – have tested positive in a re-analysis of samples from the 2008 Beijing Games.

The results could be especially damaging for Azerbaijan, which now has three weightlifters caught using performance-enhancing drugs in the past two Olympics.

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The IWF recently instituted a rule that allows for a country’s entire team to be banned if three or more of its team members cheated during that time span.

Bulgaria was previously excluded from this summer’s competition in Rio de Janeiro after a raft of positive tests. Now Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia face a similar penalty.

Friday’s announcement comes less than a month after news that 10 weightlifters from the 2012 London Games had tested positive. Numerous countries have lost one or more spots at the upcoming Games.

“Protecting clean athletes by standing up against those who do not comply with the rules remains and will continue to remain crucial for the IWF,” officials said in a recent statement.

david.wharton@latimes.com

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