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Olympics: IOC warns weightlifting it risks Olympic ouster over doping

International Olympic Committee, IOC, President Thomas Bach from Germany, speaks during a press conference after an executive board meeting, at the Olympic Museum, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Friday, June 9, 2017. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

Lausanne, Switzerland • The IOC has warned weightlifting to curb doping or risk being dropped from the 2024 Olympics.

IOC President Thomas Bach says the International Weightlifting Federation must "address the massive doping problem this sport is facing."

Bach says the IOC executive board asked the federation for a "satisfactory report" on the issue by December.

Weightlifting's doping problem was shown with 49 positive tests so far, most involving steroids, in reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. The IOC has stripped 29 weightlifting medals from those games.

The sport is safe in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics lineup, though with 64 fewer athletes and one fewer men's weight class than at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Bach says "we have sent a strong signal."

Britain's Chancellor Philip Hammond arrives at the Treasury in Whitehall, London, after Downing Street said that Theresa May is to leave her most senior Cabinet team in place following a disastrous election which left the party short of a majority in parliament, Friday, June 9, 2017. (John Stillwell/PA via AP)