Papandrea, who was on the Board of USAW for 11 years, was the national federation’s president in July 2018 when she made comments that led to an official complaint by two USAW members, Nick Dondzila and Trenton Paul.

In June last year, the USAW Ethics Committee decided that Papandrea’s comments in a post that has since been deleted were "inappropriate and reflected poor professional judgement", and referred the matter to the Judicial Committee.

Another 10 months later the Judicial Committee has posted its decision on the USAW website, stating that Papandrea has been issued with a warning.

There is no accompanying statement from USAW.

The complaint was about comments perceived by the complainants to be supportive of Colin Burns, a former USAW Board member who had been coached by Papandrea during his lifting career.

Burns was banned for 12 years by the United States Center for SafeSport (SafeSport) in February 2018 after it investigated an allegation of rape by a fellow USA team member, Jennyfer Roberts.

Roberts did not report the alleged assault - which followed a night of drinking at a pre-Olympic competition in Rio de Janeiro in April 2016 - until months later.

After an investigation that lasted 11 months, SafeSport decided Burns had committed "non-consensual sexual acts" against Roberts and banned him for 10 years for that offence, plus two years for lying to investigators.

Burns, 36, who has won national and continental titles but has not competed since 2017, denied the assault allegations and was never convicted of a criminal offence.

In July 2018, an arbitration panel comprising two former federal judges and an attorney ruled that SafeSport "had not proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Burns had non-consensual sexual contact with Roberts", and the 10-year ban was rescinded.

The two-year suspension for "abuse of process" was reduced to 18 months.

Papandrea made her comment on social media, since deleted, at this time.

"I have been reprimanded in regards to social media and instructed to undergo social media counselling," Papandrea said.

"They say it was unprofessional and I accept that, and agree it was distasteful.

"I have to be mindful that people can misinterpret social media posts. 

"I am very careful now about what I put on social media."

Throughout a process that was "handled incredibly poorly" in the view of the complainants, there had already been a vigorous exchange of views on social media between people who knew what was happening despite the original investigation being confidential.

There was more social media activity when, in March 2019, Roberts made her story public in an interview for the Californian newspaper Orange County Register.

She also filed a lawsuit against Burns, USAW and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee - reported here by insidethegames - which was later dismissed by a Californian court.

Papandrea had backed Burns throughout proceedings conducted by SafeSport, which she said were "a huge infringement on due process".

She was angry about the abuse directed at Burns on social media and was accused of "celebrating" when he was cleared by the arbitration panel.

"I was reacting out of a sense of emotion," Papandrea said.

In one social media comment Papandrea, who chairs the IWF Women’s Commission, said: "Instead of using the court of opinion people should wait until the process is over to say anything. 

"This isn’t about women versus men, this is about due process."

When told that she had been accused of failing to support female athletes at a time when she was vocal about equality in weightlifting , Papandrea responded: "Are you kidding me? 

"I’ve worked all my life for women.

"My complaint was always about SafeSport’s procedures, which were just not right, and thankfully enough national governing bodies have complained for them to fix it."

Complainant Dondzila was living with Roberts during the time of the hearings.

He said, "Ursula Papandrea is obsessed with the phrase 'due process' but the person she was defending did not respect the due process and lied in his hearings.

"It’s easy for people to focus on all the new positive things she is doing and forget about this. 

"It is not responsible at all for someone who is as empowered as she was to be so vocal… 

"When you are in a position like that, you have to remove yourself from your personal affiliations in a situation like this."

Dondzila said he did not think Papandrea "should be fired from any position" but wanted her to be held accountable.

Why did it take nearly two years from the complaint being made, in July 2018, to the result being announced?

Phil Andrews, chief executive of USAW, told insidethegames: "This has been an extremely challenging episode for our federation.

"With respect to the time it took to resolve this case, yes it did take longer than is ideal.

"Part of that reason was a change in the version of Code of Ethics which raised a question over which one applied at the time of the social media post in question.

"We were able to finally resolve the case with the original recommendation of the Ethics Committee to the Judicial Committee regarding a warning with respect to social media conduct."