Russian Weightlifter Stripped Of 2012 Olympic Silver Medal After Drug Retest

Russian weightlifter Apti Aukhadov after he won the silver medal in the men's 85-kilogram weightlifting competition at the London Olympics in 2012.

The International Olympic Committee stripped Russian weightlifter Apti Aukhadov of the silver medal he won at the 2012 London Games after a retest of samples came up positive for drugs.

Aukhadov, 23, finished second in the men's 85-kilogram weightlifting event. Iran's Kianoush Rostami won bronze in the event, and that could now be changed to silver.

The committee said on October 18 that a reanalysis of Aukhadov's samples from London resulted in positive tests for the steroids turinabol and drostanolone.

The committee also found that Ukrainian pole vaulter Maksym Mazuryk, who ranked 18th in the vaulting event in London, had been disqualified after a reanalysis came back positive, also for turinabol.

The ruling is the latest blow to Russia, whose track and field athletes were barred from the Rio Games and which is at the center of a unprecedented state doping scandal.

A total of 98 samples have come back positive for banned substances in reanalyses from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Several Russian athletes have been stripped of their medals as a result.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP