Rigert: Klokov had a Knee Surgery

August 7, 2012 By Gregor 13 Comments

David Rigert comments that Klokov didn’t even fly out to London.

Klokov had failed to recover from a knee injury that also required surgery and had not flown to London, said David Rigert, head coach of the Russian weightlifting team.

And for all you Akkaev surgery doubters:

“(The decision) was taken after the surgery, and the surgery was a very difficult and complicated surgery. More than three hours,” Akkaev said.

Akkaev stood, baring his back to reporters and displaying a bandaged surgery wound.

Update: Asked about why the injury wasn’t detected earlier Rigert says that the new doc didn’t know all the nuances.

But I will say that this is not only his fault. We simply do not train medical staff. Even the most skilled doctors take two years to understand the specificity of sports medicine.

Thanks to oLiftFan for the info.

Filed Under: Dmitry Klokov, London2012, News, weightlifting

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oLiftFan

No problem my good man!
Afferbeck

What is Rigert doing to these boys?
- http://www.facebook.com/doogie.mcdougald Doogie McDougald
  
  They were pushing themselves to win a gold medal.
colt_kalle

Does this mean that the rumours that Klokov tested positive for doping were false?
Roberto

So why didn’t the Russian replace his spot with another lifter? After all Russia has a lot of talent lifters.
- GregorATG
  
  Because there is a final deadline after which you cannot change the team members.
Peter K

Surely then they would’ve sent David Bedzhanyan ??!!! if he didn’t even travel to London,plenty of time to replace him on the starting list !
dont be scared homie

me being russian and knowing whats going on in russian and ukrainian sports i can definetely say rigert is full of shit and prtty sure he ll be losing his job after the olympics
- grambo
  
  Yep, this smells of BS. Akkaev’s injury seems legit (having suffered a herniated disc myself, though not requiring surgery thankfully), but it makes zero sense that he underwent surgery yet the news was not revealed until the day of the competition, and that he was not replaced with an alternate. If he truly had knee surgery, they would have known there was zero chance of him competing weeks in advance.
Joe

Why wasn’t there any mention of these injuries in any of the documentaries leading up to the Olympics?
Schu

I heard that some Russian guy said that both athletes got food poisoning from the same restaurant… post that until I hear something different from another Russian tomorrow…
Flaquex

How could such a prestigious institution be so incompetent when it comes to concealing doping. China weightlifting does it fine, with the exception of Liao Hui, who probably got on somebody’s bad side. Is it possible that in wanting to win, one of the two tipped off the IWF about the other, and then in revenge, the reverse? Or is it simply a matter of shitty chemists?
- dont be scared homie
  
  id think that IWF knows about all the doping but close their eyes because weightlifting wouldnt be what it is right now…but i guess klokov and artem ivanov tested WAY out of the “allowed” range…i talked to a guy who was a boxer for kazakhstan back in the day and he said that after training the 14 y/o lifters would have injections in the change rooms like its business as usual…