IWF: An association in chaos

The former controversial president of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Tamas Ajan claims that some of the accusations about him in a documentary regarding doping cover-ups in the sport and receiving under-the-table payments are "fake news."

On Wednesday, the Hungarian had offered his resignation, which was accepted by the IWF Executive Board. In an exclusive interview with DW, Ajan also said the board had also unanimously accepted him as one of its ambassadors.

Damaging documentary 

Ajan was put in the spotlight by the documentary first broadcast in early January by German public broadcaster ARD called "Geheimsache Doping: Der Herr der Heber" (Doping Top Secret: Lord of the Lifters).

It claims that many prominent weightlifting athletes who were eventually caught doping weren't even tested before or after major tournaments. It also claims that payments were made to Ajan in cash by at least one federation, and that some funds went into Swiss bank accounts to which he had signing rights.

The documentary also revealed that when Ajan, who had been the secretary general for 25 years, became the federation's president in 2000, there were more than 700 cases of doping in weightlifting. In fact, the program claims that no other sport has more doping cases.

Furthermore, it showed that between 2008 and 2017, more than 450 medals were awarded, but 204 of those medal winners were never even tested the year they won.

The IWF is responsible for trying to keep the sport clean, and the documentary prompted the sport's executive board to call for an investigation, which is being carried out by a Canadian legal firm headed by Richard McLaren.

Ajan: Resignation not about allegations

The Hungarian denies that the documentary — and current investigation because of its allegations — have anything to do with his resignation. The Hungarian said his decision was prompted by the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.

"I thought I don't want to work one year more. I opened the door and I give the possibility for the young generation to take over the weightlifting federation, and this was the reason that I announced that I stepped down," said Ajan.

Different perspective

"All the last three International Olympic Committee presidents — including Mr. Samaranch or Mr. Jacques Rogge or including Mr. Thomas Bach — all of them recalled every time that weightlifting as a sport had operated the best doping controls' program," Ajan said.

Ajan added that it was his organization that banned four countries from participating in weightlifting at the Rio Olympics in 2016 because of doping. However, he fully admits that doping is a big problem in the sport.

"Now weightlifting is a strong federation. The only problem is doping — unfortunately, in a certain region in the world, I don't want to mention the other country — in a certain region of the world, using doping in preparation time in weightlifting was absolutely accepted. As my colleagues say: doping was a culture in weightlifting."

In the ARD documentary, Azerbaijan was often mentioned as a hotbed of doping in weightlifting. When told the country he was referring to was Azerbaijan, Ajan did not comment.

Regarding payouts, Ajan said he accepted cash payments by countries that did not have normal international bank transfer systems and that everyone got a receipt.

Attempts to reach the head of the investigation, McLaren, and Acting IWF President Ursula Papandrea for comment were unsuccessful.

Blame game

Ajan said all major decisions were done with the executive board, and that's why he especially takes issue with the documentary's premise that he's to blame for the state of the sport. The Hungarian added he was taken aback that his own board would urge an investigation based on the documentary.

"They made a lot of mistakes. A lot of allegations which are not true — or fake news," Ajan said. "This is why I'm surprised, a little bit, because my executive board — may I say the IWF Executive Board — ought to study everything: Why the ARD show was not true. But they don't concentrate on this. They concentrate on one thing: to attack me, and they pay – I can tell you: one million euros for the Canadian law office to do a strong investigation. I gave all the papers to the law office, they can work. I helped them."

When pushed for concrete examples of the alleged "fake news" in the documentary, Ajan claimed there are many, but didn't go into any details.

"I never denied weightlifting is very sensitive to doping," Ajan said. "My aim was to make weightlifting a clean sport… They raised a lot of things which are absolutely untrue and just blame… Naturally, they want to protect themselves."

In or out?

Many suspect that it was, indeed, the documentary and the current investigation that may have forced the hand of the controversial sports head to finally throw in the towel as president of the IWF.

However, with Ajan now in place as an official ambassador to the organization, his influence may still be a powerful force in world weightlifting — at least, behind the scenes.