BANGKOK – The 78-year-old Tamás Aján has won a fifth term as International Weightlifting Federation president, amid criticism of the sport’s record of doping at the Olympics.
The IWF says Aján beat Antonio Urso, the Italian leader of European weightlifting, 86-61 in a vote of member federations. Seven candidates had entered the contest.
Hungarian official Aján has led the Budapest-based IWF since 2000. He was previously its CEO-like secretary general for 25 years.
Weightlifting’s longstanding doping problem was shown with 49 of the 111 positive tests, most involving steroids, in reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has so far stripped 29 weightlifting medals from those games.
Aján was an IOC member for 10 years until 2010, and remains an honorary member.