Venezuela Ducks Teamwide Ban After Third Failed Drug Test in 15 Months

Team Venezuela narrowly avoided suspension from the international weightlifting circuit — along with heavily financial penalties — after the International Testing Agency (ITA) announced the country's third positive drug test in 15 months.

• Put Simply: According to the International Weightlifting Federation's (IWF) anti-doping rules, a country whose athletes are caught using banned substances thrice in a year's time faces steep sanctions. 

On May 14, 2025, the ITA announced that 17-year-old Venezuelan weightlifter Sahara Yeismar Ochoa Rodriguez tested positive for a banned substance in March; the country's third drug test scandal in just over a year.

Venezuela's close call comes just a few months before the Pan-American Weightlifting Championships, where the country historically dominates.

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According to the ITA, Ochoa Rodriguez tested positive for the selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) Ligandrol shortly after her fifth-place finish at the 2025 Junior Pan-American Weightlifting Championships.

• From the ITA: "Ligandrol [is a banned substance] under the 2025 WADA Prohibited List ... that mimics the activity of testosterone in the body and that improves muscle mass."

If Ochoa Rodriguez fails to explain herself to the ITA or petition a retest, the organization says, her provisional suspension will be confirmed as an official Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). 

Should she be penalized, the decision would mark Venezuela's third ADRV since Feb. 2024. Had it occurred just three months sooner, it's possible Team Venezuela would find itself banished from the international weightlifting scene — and almost certainly out of the Olympics in '28.

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Member federations which fail to control their athletes' illicit drug use are at serious risk of losing their good standing with the IWF. 

Here's the 2025 anti-doping policy again:

• "Should three (3) or more violations ... have been committed by Athletes or other Persons affiliated to the Member Federation within a 12-month period, the Independent Panel may ... impose Member Consequences on the Member Federation of a period of up to (4) years; and/or fine the Member Federation up to $500,000 ... If the Member Federation fails to pay the fine ... an additional fine up to $250,000 and/or further Member Consequences (for an additional period of up to two years) may be imposed..."

Venezuelan weightlifters had already been sanctioned twice by the ITA in the last year or so. 

Richard Jose Ollo Rangel was suspended for four years in May '24 for Boldenone, and Jhohan David Sanguino Moatamoros is provisionally suspended since March for Stanozolol as of this article's publication.

In plan English, Ochoa Rodriguez nearly triggered Article 12.3.2, which may have cost Venezuela's weightlifting federation hundreds of thousands of dollars — and likely prohibited their weightlifters from qualifying for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles due to missing out on required events.

• Collective Punishment: Famed Romanian weightlifter Loredana Toma missed the Tokyo Olympics under similar circumstances. In Jun. 2021, the IWF announced that Toma's federation would receive a one-year suspension just weeks before she was anticipated to win gold in the Women's 64-kilogram event. Toma herself was not identified by the ITA at the time.