The IWF announced today that Ilya Ilyin will be eligible to compete again once the suspension of the Kazakh Weightlifting Federation comes to end on October 19 of this year.

The IWF issued the greatest possible sanction against Ilyin that is permitted: two years of ineligibility. Despite Ilyin committing Anti-Doping Rule Violations both at the Beijing and the London Olympic Games, the IWF can only consider the two violations as one according to the applicable rules.

This is thanks to World Anti-Doping Code, article 10.7.4.1, which states, “an anti-doping rule violation will only be considered a second violation if the anti-doping organization can establish that the athlete or other Person committed the second anti-doping rule violation after the athlete or other Person received notice pursuant to Article 7, or after the anti-doping organization made reasonable efforts to give notice of the first anti-doping rule violation. If the anti-doping organization cannot establish this, the violations shall be considered together as one single first violation, and the sanction imposed shall be based on the violation that carries the more severe sanction.”

So basically, since Ilyin was not notified of his initial violation at the 2008 Beijing Games his second violation at the 2012 London Games can't be treated as a second violation. This means that once the suspension from the “Tbilisi Decision” ends in October of this year that Ilyin will have the green light to compete once again.

IWF also noted that they are working with WADA and the IOC to discuss possibilities for the future to consider relevant rules to be changed and deal with the result of reanalysis programs similar to those of Beijing and London in a different manner. You can check out the full release from the IWF here.