Objective: This study compared sport confidence and multidimensional perfectionism between elite male adolescent weightlifters with and without confirmed doping violations.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included eight elite male adolescent weightlifters from the Iranian national team who competed in the 2014 Asian Weightlifting Championships. All questionnaires were completed before the competition and prior to the release of the official doping-control results. Following the announcement of the results by the International Weightlifting Federation, the athletes were classified into a doping group (n = 4) and a non-doping group (n = 4). Data were collected using the Sources of Sport Confidence Questionnaire and the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2. Between-group differences were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U test, and effect sizes were calculated for all comparisons.

Results: No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in any of the sport confidence or multidimensional perfectionism subscales (all p > .05). Nevertheless, several comparisons showed notable effect sizes, with the largest observed for organization (r = 0.61) and environmental comfort (r = 0.56).

Conclusion: The findings indicate that sport confidence and multidimensional perfectionism alone do not clearly distinguish elite adolescent weightlifters with confirmed doping violations from their non-doping counterparts. Given the very small sample size and the uncertainty surrounding the effect estimates, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Further studies involving larger samples are needed to clarify the potential role of these psychological characteristics in doping behavior.