Jeff Michels

Last updated

Jeffrey ("Jeff") Thomas Michels (born December 29, 1961) was an Olympic weightlifter for the United States. His coach was Steve Gough.

Contents

Career

In 1983 after Michels won three gold medals from the Pan American Games, he realized he was about two years away from setting world weightlifting records. However, after this competition, Michels tested positive for excessive amounts of testosterone. Because of his use of a banned substance, Michels was stripped of all of his medals that he had earned, suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation, and forbidden by the International Olympic Committee to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. [1]

Michels was one of 19 positive tests at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, where new sophisticated testing procedures were introduced for the first time, in earnest. Michels repudiated his positive test for synthetic testosterone, which before the introduction of the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry assay, could not be identified in athletes' samples. Curiously, Michels was cleared to compete in the Games after testing clean as part of a pre-screening program conducted by the USOC. After winning the heavyweight competition in Caracas just two days later, Michels was found positive, and was subsequently stripped of his gold medals and sent home from the competition. After a lengthy legal battle, wherein Michels contested the testing procedures and laboratory findings, his ban was upheld, ruling him out of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. [2]

Michels legal case made headlines across the United States, ostensibly because he had several legitimate arguments. For one, the recently ratified Amateur Sports Act of 1978 guaranteed athletes "swift and equitable" resolution of disputes, including the adjudication of doping cases. After testing positive in August 1983 Michels' case dragged on, and had yet to be resolved just weeks before the opening ceremonies in Los Angeles. Michels filed several injunctions in an attempt to qualify for the Games, but was ultimately unsuccessful. [3] [4]

Michels now works for a firm that makes dictation equipment. His testing positive for a banned substance, temporary retirement, and a back injury they kept him from lifting for 18 months left Michels' body incapable to compete at the highest world-class levels of weight lifting. [1]

Family

Michels is married with one son. [1]

Weightlifting achievements

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrei Rybakou</span> Belarusian weightlifter

Andrei Rybakou is a Belarusian former weightlifter, Olympian and two-time World Champion who competed in the 85 kg category. In 2016, after a retest of his 2008 samples tested positive for Dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone and Stanozolol his performance at the 2008 Olympic Games was disqualified, as well as his Olympic record and World record set during the competition. He was also ordered to return his silver medal.

Competitors at the Olympic Games have used banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs.

Yurik Sarkisyan is a former Soviet Armenian weightlifter. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1982. In 2007, Yurik Sarkisyan included into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame weightlifting.

Stefan Khristov Botev is an Olympic weightlifter who represented Bulgaria and later for Australia. He was coached by Ivan Abadzhiev. Botev is a two-time world and European champion, winner of the World Cup in 1988 and was voted as Bulgaria's Sportsperson of the Year in 1990. Stefan is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist - once for Bulgaria in 1992 and once for Australia in 1996. Botev is a three-time gold medalist from the Goodwill Games in Seattle in 1990.

Ivan Ivanov Ivanov is a Bulgarian former weightlifter and current head coach of the national Bulgarian weightlifting teams. He claimed one gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games, four time World Champion, and five time European Champion. He won the 1990 World Cup. Ivan also won 1991 World Cup Final in Barcelona and 1990 World Cup Final in Tainan, and in 1989 in Lisbon he finished second. In 1990, he became a gold medalist in Total and Clean, and Jerk and silver, medalist in Snatch of the Goodwill Games in Seattle. Ivanov was named the Best Weightlifter in the World by the International Weightlifting Federation for 1989 and 1990. Ivanov is also a three-time World Junior Champion and twice European Junior Champion. He was elected as the best coach of Bulgaria for 2019 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the country together with the trainer on rhythmic gymnastics Vesela Dimitrova.

Hoàng Anh Tuấn is a Vietnamese weightlifter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilya Ilyin</span> Kazakhstani weightlifter (born 1988)

Ilya Aleksandrovich Ilyin is a retired Kazakhstani weightlifter who won four world championships. On 12 December, 2015 at the President's Cup in Grozny, Russia, Ilyin set two world records in the −105 kg class. He lifted 246 kg in the clean and jerk and 437 kg in the total. Ilyin was named IWF World Weightlifter of the Year four times: in 2005, 2006, 2014, and 2015.

Duncan Fuller Atwood is a former American athlete who twice won a gold medal in the javelin throw at the Pan American Games: in 1979 and 1987. Atwood set his personal best on August 29, 1987, in Rome, Italy, during the qualification round at the World Championships.

Asen Zlatev is a former Bulgarian weightlifter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oksen Mirzoyan</span> Soviet weightlifter

Oksen Mirzoyan is a former Soviet Armenian weightlifter and European, World and Olympic Champion. Mirzoyan was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1984 and the Honored Coach of Armenia title in 1998.

Liao Hui is a former Chinese weightlifter, Olympic champion and three-time world champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lü Xiaojun</span> Chinese Olympic weightlifting champion

Lü Xiaojun is a Chinese weightlifter. He is a three-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion competing in the 77 kg category until 2018 and 81 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories. He is widely considered as one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weightlifting at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 94 kg</span>

The men's 94 kilograms weightlifting event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, took place at ExCeL London.

The Men's 85 kilograms weightlifting event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, took place at ExCeL London.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Sedov was a Kazakh weightlifter, who competed in men's 94 kg weight category.

Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu is an Indian weightlifter. Born in Kakching Khunou, Kakching district, Manipur, she is a two time Commonwealth Games Champion. Chanu won the gold medals at the 2014 Glasgow and the 2018 Gold Coast events in the women's 48 kg and 53 kg weight category respectively. She holds the Commonwealth Games record of 84 kg for the Snatch segment in the latter weight category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lasha Talakhadze</span> Georgian weightlifter (born 1993)

Lasha Talakhadze is a Georgian weightlifter, holding the all-time world records regardless of weight category in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the total since 2021.

Mitko Todorov Grablev is a Bulgarian weightlifter who competed for Bulgaria. He is world and twice European champion and world record holder. He originally claimed the gold medal in Weightlifting at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 56 kg but was disqualified after he tested positive for furosemide. It became a scandal after another Bulgarian weightlifter Angel Guenchev, who also originally claimed a gold medal in weightlifting, was disqualified for failing drug testing and a positive result for the doping agent furosemide. The Bulgarian weightlifting team was forced to withdraw midway from the weightlifting competition.

Angel Angelov Genchev is a Bulgarian weightlifter who competed for Bulgaria. He claimed the gold medal in weightlifting at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 67.5 kg but was disqualified after he tested positive for furosemide, an IOC banned substance. It became a scandal because earlier in the meet fellow Bulgarian weightlifter Mitko Grablev had also been disqualified, after claiming a gold medal in his division, when his drug test came back positive, also for furosemide. The Bulgarian weightlifting team was forced to withdraw midway through the Weightlifting competition. Of six athletes known to have lifted more than triple their bodyweight, Genchev's 202.5 kg world record was the heaviest ever performed in competition. Genchev is a European champion in the 75 kg category from Cardiff in 1988. He was also a bronze medalist at the 1994 World Championships in Istanbul. He won the European Cup in Reims 1986 and Miskolc 1987 with the team of Bulgaria. There he set a world record in snatch - 170 kg. Angel is a four-time World and European junior champion.

Andor Szanyi is a weightlifter who competed for Hungary. His entire career has been marred by controversy after he was stripped of the silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics for cheating.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Janofsky, Michael (14 August 1988). "Olympic People: Jeff Michels; Weight Lifter Carries a Heavy Burden". New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  2. ↑ Voy, Robert (1991). Drugs, Sport, and Politics: The Inside Story about Drug Use in Sport and its Political Cover-up, with a Prescription for Reform. Champaign, Illinois: Leisure Press. pp. 80–88. OCLC   21873349 . Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "Michels v United States Olympic Committee". OpenJurist. F2d (741). Circuit Court of Illinois: 155. 16 August 1984. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  4. ↑ Leavy, Jane (28 July 1984). "IOC Ends Michels' Hopes by Refusing To Lift Suspension: Michels Goes Home Early". The Washington Post. The Washington Post.


Weightlifting pictogram.svg

This biographical article relating to weightlifting in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.