SYDNEY: Australian weightlifting was rocked yesterday by allegations an athlete held his Olympic team to ransom by insisting on a Aus$5,000 ($5,000) payment before competing at a qualifying event.
Australian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) chief Michael Keelan claimed officials scrambled to find the money to give to Daniel Koum after he asked for it at the Oceania Weightlifting Championships in Samoa last week.
If any Australian male athlete had failed to compete at the event the team could not have finished among the top five nations, meaning Australia would have been unable to send a male lifter to the London Olympics.
“He said if he didn’t get that amount of money he said he would not participate in the championships,” Keelan told AFP, adding it was the first time such a thing had happened to him in more than 40 years in the sport.
“We were absolutely shocked and stunned. It was just unbelievable.”
Keelan said he was one of several coaches and officials who pooled their funds to pay the Aus$5,000.
Koum, who competed at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010, rejected the claims and said he had always competed in events even though there was a personal financial cost.
“I’m very shocked,” the 26-year-old told Australian Associated Press.
