Olympic weightlifting champion Nijat Rahimov has been declared guilty of doping violations and has been stripped of his 2016 gold medal.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on March 22 said the Kazakh lifter was guilty of “four urine substitutions” and had been banned from the sport for eight years.
The court also disqualified all of his results since March 2016.
In January, the International Testing Agency charged Rahimov with “an anti-doping rule violation for urine substitution” that occurred over a period of time in 2016.
Rahimov scored a world record at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but the victory was questioned even at the time, coming one year after he served a previous ban for doping while competing for Azerbaijan.
He returned to compete for Kazakhstan a few months before the 2016 Olympics.
Rahimov was caught as part of the “Operation Arrow” investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The probe began after widespread doping and corruption issues were exposed a year ago by German broadcaster ARD.
CAS said Rahimov will be banned until January 2029. He can challenge the ruling at the CAS appeal division.
Olympic Weightlifting Champ Stripped Of Gold Medal In Doping Case
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