Track: Bolt loses Beijing relay gold after teammate fails new doping test
Usain Bolt is no longer a triple-triple Olympic gold medalist.
Bolt and the Jamaican team have been stripped of their 4x100-metre relay gold medal from the Beijing Games in 2008 because one runner, Nesta Carter, was found guilty of a doping violation, the International Olympic Committee said Wednesday.
Bolt won the 100 metres, the 200 and the 4x100 relay at the last three Summer Olympics, for a total of nine gold medals, tied for the most of any track athlete.
Carter initially tested negative after the race in 2008. But his sample was one of many retested by the IOC last year. It was found to contain a prohibited stimulant, methylhexaneamine.
Olympics officials last year intensified scrutiny of samples from past Olympics after Russia was found to have executed an elaborate, state-supported doping scheme. Dozens of athletes from the Beijing and London Games have been found, upon retesting of their stored samples, to be guilty of doping violations. Many were medallists. It is standard practice for Olympic officials to store urine samples for up to a decade so they may conduct additional tests, often with more advanced, newly developed techniques.
Carter was also a part of the winning 4x100 relay team in London in 2012, but no announcement about the status of that medal has been made. He is a three-time world champion in the relay as well.
The IOC directed the international track federation to “modify the results” of the 2008 event. Trinidad, Japan and Brazil were second, third and fourth in the race and would each move up a notch.
The IOC also told the Jamaican federation to secure the return of the physical gold medals.