Maiya Salakharqyzy Maneza ( kk, Майя Салахарқызы Манеза; russian: Майя Салахаровна Манеза; born 1 November 1985) is a

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

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 ...

. She initially won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 63 kg category by lifting a combined weight of 245 kg and set a new Olympic record in the process. She was later stripped of her Olympic medal after a failed drug test.

Personal life

Maneza is a member of the ethnic

Dungan Dungan may refer to: * Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes spelled Dungan * Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin ** Dungan language ** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally * Dungan Mountains in Sibi Dist ...

minority. Born in

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

, she moved to Kazakhstan in 2007 and competes for Kazakhstan. Chinese media reported that she was born Yao Li ( zh, s=姚丽, p=Yáo Lì, dng, Йо Ли) in Tayingzi Village, Wuhuanchi Town,

Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County, or simply Fuxin County, is a county in the west of Liaoning of Northeast China. It is under the administration of Fuxin City. Administrative Divisions There are 13 towns A town is a human settlement. Towns a ...

, Liaoning Province, and emigrated to Kazakhstan in 2008 along with Zulfiya Chinshanlo with the approval of

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

sport officials on a lease contract. Following her Olympic medal win the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

government news agency,

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

claimed that Maneza and fellow weightlifter Zulfiya Chinshanlo should be regarded as Chinese. The government of Kazakhstan rejected this claim and accused China of "poor sportsmanship".

Failed drug tests

In June 2016, the

International Weightlifting Federation The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), headquartered in Lausanne, is the international governing body for the sport of Olympic weightlifting. The IWF was founded in 1905, and has 192 Member Federations. The IWF President is Mohammed H ...

(IWF) announced that retests of the samples taken from the 2012 London Games indicated that Maneza had tested positive for prohibited substances, namely stanazolol. The samples of three other Kazakhstanis also returned positive test results upon re-analysis: Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Svetlana Podobedova and

Ilya Ilyin Ilya Aleksandrovich Ilyin (russian: Илья Александрович Ильин; born 24 May 1988) is a retired Kazakhstani weightlifter who won four world championships. On 12 December, 2015 at the President's Cup in Grozny, Russia, Ilyin ...

. On 27 October 2016, the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

stripped Maneza of her 2012 Olympic gold medal. In August 2016, the IWF reported that retests of the samples taken from the 2008 Beijing Games indicated that Maneza had returned an adverse analytical finding for stanazolol, she being among 15 weightlifters from

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

, China,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

whose samples returned positive test results upon re-analysis. The three other Kazakhstanis were

Mariya Grabovetskaya Mariya Grabovetskaya (born 10 April 1987) is a female weightlifter from Kokshetau, Kazakhstan. Career She won the silver medal at the 2007 Junior World Championships, with a total of 277 kg. At the 2008 Summer Olympics Th ...

and

Irina Nekrassova Irina Nekrassova (born 1 March 1988) is a female weightlifter from Kazakhstan. Career At the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships she ranked 9th in the 69 kg category, lifting 228 kg in total. She initially won the silver medal in ...

, whose Olympic medals were revoked by the IOC on 17 November 2016, and

Vladimir Sedov Vladimir Vladimirovich Sedov ( kk, Владимир Владимирович Седов; born 2 March 1988 in Ushtobe, Almaty Region) is a Kazakhstani weightlifter. Career He won a gold medal for the 94 kg class at the 2009 World Weightlifti ...

. The

also disqualified Maneza from the 2008 Olympic Games for failing a drugs test in a re-analysis of her doping sample from 2008, even though she withdrew from the competition before it was held.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maneza, Maiya 1985 births Living people Kazakhstani female weightlifters World record setters in weightlifting Olympic weightlifters of Kazakhstan Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Weightlifting Championships medalists Asian Games medalists in weightlifting Asian Games gold medalists for Kazakhstan Weightlifters at the 2010 Asian Games Doping cases in weightlifting Kazakhstani people of Chinese descent Kazakhstani people of Hui descent People from Chüy Region Kyrgyzstani emigrants to Kazakhstan Kazakhstani sportspeople in doping cases Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games