SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- Bulgaria's longtime weightlifting coach resigned Thursday, complaining about the lack of support in the wake of a drug scandal involving three Bulgarian lifters at the Sydney Olympics.
"I felt abandoned by my people," said Ivan Abadzhiev. "After the scandal in Sydney I felt very depressed and nobody except (former Olympic champion) Nurair Nurikyan came to see me.
Oct. 5:
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Corey Wilkes, an alternate for the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team, died after the motorcycle he was riding crashed late Friday night, police said.
Alcohol and the speed of the motorcycle were factors in the crash, which also killed a woman who was with Wilkes, Sgt. Jerry Steckler said. The woman's name was being withheld pending notification of relatives.
Oct. 1:
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SYDNEY (AP) -- For weightlifting, a sport rarely watched in non-Olympic years and then noticed for all the wrong reasons during the Olympics, these were the shame games.
The attention was supposed to be on the Pocket Hercules, the multiple gold medallists and broken records, on the great weights lifted by men and, in a first, by women.
Sept. 28:
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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- The silver medalist didn't know his name even after losing to him. Asked beforehand what his own expectations were, he was pessimistic about winning a medal.
So imagine Hossein Rezazadeh's surprise when he outlifted the world's strongest men to win the gold medal in Olympic super heavyweight weightlifting -- even if he didn't win instant recognition.
Sept. 26:
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