Israel José Rubio Rivero (born 11 January 1981) is a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lif ...

. Rubio originally placed 4th in the men's 62kg weightlifting competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, but was moved to third place and received a bronze medal when the previous bronze medalist,

Leonidas Sampanis Leonidas Sabanis ( el, Λεωνίδας Σαμπάνης, sq, Luan Shabani; born 28 October 1971), sometimes spelled Leonidas Sampanis, is a Greek retired weightlifter, born in southern Albania, who represented Greece in 1996, 2000 and 2004 Sum ...

, was stripped of his medal following a doping scandal. At the 2008 Summer Olympics he ranked 13th in the men's 69kg weightlifting competition, lifting a total of 306 kg. Rubio was arrested on January 25, 2012, in the city of Pescara, Italy, for alleged possession of narcotics.

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