Doping Scandals & Olympics Corruption - Zack Telander
Zack Telander (guest), Chris Williamson (host)
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Zack Telander and Chris Williamson, Doping Scandals & Olympics Corruption - Zack Telander explores olympic Weightlifting Faces Collapse Amid Unprecedented Doping Corruption Crisis Chris Williamson and weightlifting coach Zack Telander unpack the deep-rooted corruption and doping scandals threatening Olympic weightlifting’s future in the Games, particularly its place in LA 2028.
Olympic Weightlifting Faces Collapse Amid Unprecedented Doping Corruption Crisis
Chris Williamson and weightlifting coach Zack Telander unpack the deep-rooted corruption and doping scandals threatening Olympic weightlifting’s future in the Games, particularly its place in LA 2028.
They explain how decades of graft within the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and systematic doping across multiple countries have produced absurd outcomes, such as an 11th-place finisher retroactively receiving Olympic gold.
Zack outlines how anti-doping systems are manipulated, from national-level coverups to bribes and swapped samples, and why the IOC is now pressuring weightlifting far more seriously than before.
They debate whether truly fair sport is possible, the moral limits of performance enhancement (especially for youth), and what reforms would be needed to save the sport from effective extinction at the Olympic level.
Key Takeaways
Weightlifting’s Olympic status is genuinely at risk due to entrenched corruption.
The IOC has effectively put weightlifting on notice for LA 2028, signaling that unless the IWF radically reforms governance and anti-doping enforcement, the sport may be dropped and replaced by newer disciplines like skateboarding or climbing.
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The IWF operated for decades like a criminal syndicate under former president Tamás Aján.
Investigations uncovered millions of dollars in unaccounted funds, off-book Swiss bank accounts, cash bribes, and hundreds of ‘disappeared’ or delayed doping tests, all orchestrated by leadership that would likely face criminal charges outside sport.
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Doping in weightlifting is both widespread and structurally protected in some nations.
Countries have used lax or corrupt national anti-doping systems to run sophisticated programs: paying off testers, substituting athletes at tests, cycling off drugs before WADA events, and even threatening athletes if they don’t comply with medal-fixing schemes.
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The biggest injustice is not just doping itself, but unequal enforcement.
Zack argues that the core problem is some athletes and countries being shielded by officials while others (like US and UK lifters under strict USADA/UKAD) compete clean or nearly clean, creating a fundamentally uneven playing field rather than a universal ‘race to the bottom’.
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Doping harms extend beyond fairness, especially when children are involved.
Examples like Egypt giving PEDs to 12‑year‑olds highlight that this isn’t just a purity-of-sport issue; it’s a serious ethical and health concern, raising questions about where society draws the line on medical interventions for minors.
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Doping pressures are driven by political and national prestige, not just athletes’ ambition.
For nations with few global sports successes, weightlifting medals function as propaganda and geopolitical signaling, incentivizing officials to tolerate or engineer doping schemes rather than dismantle them.
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Reform is possible but requires clearing out leadership and tightening testing architecture.
Zack advocates for firing everyone tied to the old IWF regime, independently verifying national testing, and mandating frequent, predictable-but-frequent international tests to reduce the gains from heavy drug cycles while acknowledging that cheating can never be eliminated entirely.
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Notable Quotes
“There were 10 people that were found to have had PEDs… thus giving the 11th place finisher the gold medal.”
— Zack Telander
“There is no other way I can describe the IWF other than a crime syndicate.”
— Zack Telander
“If these guys, the heads of the IWF, were outside of sport, they would be behind bars.”
— Zack Telander
“The biggest issue that I found with doping… is the protection of athletes who dope.”
— Zack Telander
“I would like to open a gym in the future and have youth lifters lift there with the dream of going to the Olympics… and to have it taken away from a bunch of boomers in suits is a complete issue.”
— Zack Telander
Questions Answered in This Episode
If complete eradication of doping is impossible, what level of imperfection would still be considered ‘fair enough’ for Olympic sport?
Chris Williamson and weightlifting coach Zack Telander unpack the deep-rooted corruption and doping scandals threatening Olympic weightlifting’s future in the Games, particularly its place in LA 2028.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Should the IOC punish corrupt federations by removing sports entirely if it also destroys the dreams of current and future clean athletes?
They explain how decades of graft within the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and systematic doping across multiple countries have produced absurd outcomes, such as an 11th-place finisher retroactively receiving Olympic gold.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How could anti-doping agencies practically verify and audit national testing programs in authoritarian or opaque countries?
Zack outlines how anti-doping systems are manipulated, from national-level coverups to bribes and swapped samples, and why the IOC is now pressuring weightlifting far more seriously than before.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Is there any ethical framework under which regulated, transparent PED use in certain sports could be justified, or would that inevitably worsen exploitation (especially of youth)?
They debate whether truly fair sport is possible, the moral limits of performance enhancement (especially for youth), and what reforms would be needed to save the sport from effective extinction at the Olympic level.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
To what extent are fans, broadcasters, and sponsors complicit when they continue supporting sports whose governing bodies are known to be deeply corrupt?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
There were 10 people that were found to have had PEDs, and either suspended or retroactively suspended, thus giving the 11th place finisher the gold medal.
You're kidding me.
So when you s- I'm not kidding you. 11th place to gold medal.
(wind blowing) Zach Tellander, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me back, Chris.
What's happening, man? You look serious. You're a serious human today.
No, um, uh, you know, normal stuff in, in my neck of the woods. Uh, weightlifting is going through its potential death penalty.
All right.
But beyond that, it's p- it's a pretty great day.
Well, we're, we're in the same city and we've decided to do this over the internet. Like, we could-
(laughs) I know.
I could shout it out of the window. We could just do it that way.
Yeah, I'll see you tonight, man.
Yeah, catch you later on. Let's do this, let's do this unrecorded later. But, uh, I have had 48 hours from hell with this. Jordan Peterson fucking infected me. Gave me a stomach... He poisoned me, that man.
Was it Jordan Peterson or was it a Chicago-style hot dog from the Ch- Chicago airport?
I'm blaming it on Jordan Pete-
(laughs)
I'm thinking a Canadian... This is an act of war from the Canadians against Britain.
(laughs)
Oh, these fucking polite motherfuckers. Uh, I don't know. So I thought that I'd eaten a dodgy hot dog, and that was what had caused me to wake up at 3:00 in the morning on Monday after I'd spent the weekend in Nashville with Jordan and Mikayla, with just vomiting, sat on the toilet for like 12 hours, just hadn't been that bad in... Dude, I threw everything I had at that illness. I was doing breath work, I was doing mindfulness practices against it. I'm pretty sure that I prayed at one point.
(laughs)
Like (laughs) I'm like just putting on my knees to a higher power. I've got the cushion on the floor, and-
Well, you were, you were praying to the porcelain god. That's for sure.
Correct, correct. I just wanted it to end. Uh, so I thought it was this dodgy hot dog that I'd had at Chicago airport, and then Mikayla messages me on, mm, Tuesday morning, "Oh my God, Chris, what have you done to us? Everyone in the house is really, really sick." Uh, so the only person, suspiciously, the only person out of the entire group that was out over the weekend that isn't ill is Jordan. Uh, so I am classifying that as an act of war.
Can, can I be honest with you? I'm actually really relieved it wasn't a Chicago-style hot dog, because-
'Cause that's your hometown, right?
Yeah, well because like, if you and I ever go to Chicago, and you're like, "Nope, no, no hot dogs for me," I would be heartbroken, you know?
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