The weightlifter of Cuban origin,Arley Mendez, will be able to compete in theTokyo Olympics despite the fact that he tested positive for cannabis in a doping control in May, as confirmed by the Olympic Committee of Chile, the country where he is naturalized.
The athlete will be able to be in the Olympic event because the International Testing Agency (ITA) accepted his explanations, and he was sanctioned for only one month, the minimum punishment contemplated by the World Anti-Doping Agency Code for the presence of marijuana in the controls.
The Cuban, a Chilean national, acknowledged having consumed cannabis, but outside the competition period. Upon recognizing the fact, a three-month sanction was applied, but to reduce said punishment, the athlete was offered the possibility of undergoing an anti-drug program recognized by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).
Méndez accepted the offer and for that reason the sanction was reduced to just one month, so he will be able to attend Tokyo and also enter the Olympic Village on July 25, as stipulated in his planning.
As detailed by the Chilean Olympic Committee in a statement, the month of punishment will be effective between June 19 and July 28.
Given that the weightlifter's competition in the Olympic Games. begins on July 31, that is, after the period contemplated by the sanction, the International Weightlifting Federation officially confirmed its quota in the -81 Kilos Category of said discipline.
"From the beginning we indicated that Arley's participation was on hold until there was a ruling from the ITA. This has already happened, and the ruling does not prohibit the athlete from participating in the Olympic Games," said Miguel Ángel Mujica, president of the Olympic Committee. of Chile, in statements to the press of that country.
"We do not have the power to increase or decrease this punishment, the suspension is one month and that is how it must be fulfilled. Even if Arley can go to Tokyo, this is a very serious issue, and we ask our athletes not to make distinctions among the prohibited substances since all of them constitute a misdemeanor, regardless of the duration of the sanction," he concluded.
Born in San Cristóbal on December 31, 1993, he left the Cuban team in 2013 in Chile, during the Pan American Weightlifting Championships, where he won a gold medal with 191 kilos of clean and jerk.
He lived in Iquique before settling in the Ñuñoa High Performance Center hotel, supported by the Chilean Weightlifting Federation and the Chilean Olympic Committee.
He participated in national competitions while regularizing his immigration status, breaking the Chilean national record in the 85 kilo category in 2016, placing first in the Pan American ranking and fourth in the world.
After living undocumented in Chile for almost four years, and only obtaining permanent residence papers in 2016, at the end of May 2017 he was granted nationality by grace in a unanimous vote of the Senate, proposed by the then president of the Chilean Olympic Committee. .
He represented Chile in the 2017 Bolivarian Games, where he won three gold medals, but they were stripped from him for not having legally accredited his Chilean citizenship. Days later he participated in the World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim, California, where he won a triple gold medal in his category by lifting 175 kilos in the snatch and 203 in the clean and jerk, adding an Olympic total of 378 kilos.
That same year, the Circle of Sports Journalists of Chile awarded Méndez the Award for the best athlete in Chile.
The Tokyo Olympic Games, extended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held in Japan between July 23 and August 8.
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