Russia’s Irina Korzhanenko was stripped of her shot-put gold medal on Monday, the first athlete of the Athens Games to lose an Olympic title because of doping.
Korzhanenko, the first woman to win a gold medal at the sacred site of Ancient Olympia, tested positive for the steroid stanozolol after Wednesday’s competition. The back-up B sample confirmed the initial finding.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board expelled Korzhanenko from the Games and ordered the Russian Olympic Committee to return the medal.
The gold will now go to Cuba’s Yumileidi Cumba Jay. Germany’s Nadine Kleinert will move up to silver and Russia’s Svetlana Krivelyova to bronze.
Members of the Russian Olympic Committee met to discuss the IOC decision and to decide when Korzhanenko will return to Moscow.
Korzhanenko, who served a previous two-year drug suspension, faces a lifetime ban from the sport. In 1999, she was stripped of the silver medal at the world indoor championships for a doping violation and was given a two-year suspension that kept her out of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Under international rules, two steroid violations warrant a lifetime ban.
The IOC decision came a day after Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis became the first athlete of the Athens Games to be stripped of a medal for a doping offence. Sampanis lost his bronze medal in the 62kg category after testing positive for testosterone.
The shot put was held at Ancient Olympia, about 320km south-west of Athens, two days before the start of track and field in Olympic Stadium. It was the first time women had competed at the site; the ancient Olympics were for men only.
Korzhanenko won with a throw of 21,06m — the first throw of more than 21m in four years.
Another female shot-putter, Uzbekistan’s Olga Shchukina, tested positive in a pre-event screening for the steroid clenbuterol. She finished 19th and last in her qualifying group and was expelled from the Games on Friday.
So far, nine weightlifters have failed drug tests. A Kenyan boxer was also sent home for using drugs. With six days left in the Games, including track and field events, more positives are likely.
”The testing is more extensive and more comprehensive, so you’d expect we would catch more athletes that are cheating,” Dick Pound, the World Anti-Doping Agency chief, said on Sunday.
”It increases the confidence in the authenticity of the competition if we are taking people out who cheated.” — Sapa-AP
Special Report: Olympics 2004