Weight Lifting, an Original Olympic Sport, May Be Dropped

Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesWeight lifting was one of just nine sports at the first Olympics in 1896, but its days on the summer program may be numbered.

After decades of rampant doping, bribery, vote-rigging and corruption at weight lifting’s highest levels, the International Olympic Committee finally took action last year by threatening to drop the sport from the Games in the coming months if the International Weightlifting Federation does not introduce a host of fixes, including rigorous drug testing measures and governance reforms.

The prognosis is not good. The leaders of the weight lifting federation failed during a key vote on June 30 to get the support needed to pass a new…