Athens - The Greek weightlifting team could miss the Beijing Olympics and other upcoming international events after 11 of its athletes failed doping tests last month.

The Hellenic Weightlifting Federation confirmed on Friday that five men and six women from the 14-strong national team were caught using forbidden substances at out-of-competition tests carried out by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) by request of the world governing body IWF on March 7.

The positive tests prompted coach Christos Iacovou to hand in his resignation, but the national federation said that they would not consider it as he they had suspended him until the matter had been examined.

Iacovou, 60, is one of Greece's most respected coaches, whose team has won five Olympic gold medals along with five silver and two bronze since the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

The Greek federation did not release names because the examination of the B-sample is yet to confirm the original finding. The substances the athletes used were also not named.

The results put the Greek national team at risk of not participating at the upcoming European Championships in Italy and the Olympics in Beijing set for August 8-24.

Under anti-doping rules by the International Weightlifting Federation, entire teams can be suspended from international competitions for up to two years if three or more athletes fail doping tests within one year.

The IWF has spoken out such bans before, but then changed them into fines. Iran, Russia, Argentina and Kazakhstan for instance were allowed to compete at the 2006 worlds after paying a 50,000-dollar (32,000 euros) fine for each caught athlete (in Iran's case 450,000 dollars for nine positive tests).

Weightlifting has been plagued by doping over the years, with 42 athletes suspended in 2007 alone, according to the IWF website.

Greece was also involved, with Leonidas Sampanis losing his Olympic 63kg category bronze 2004 in Athens after over a positive test. (dpa)