Nadzeya Ostapchuk Stripped Of Olympics Gold For Doping

Not TALENT

Just hours after the close of the Olympics, Nadzeya Ostapchuk, female shot putter from Belarus was stripped of her gold Monday in the first case of an athlete losing a medal for doping at the London Games. The gold medal was awarded to Valerie Adams of New Zealand, who winds up as Olympic champion for the second time in a row.

The International Olympic Committee said Ostapchuk, a former world champion, tested positive for steroids both before and after winning the shot put last week for her first Olympic gold.

After an IOC hearing, she was formally expelled from the games and had her victory and medal removed from the records. She was the eighth athlete, and first medalist, caught during the IOC’s London drug-testing program.

Adams was bumped up from Olympic silver to gold, with Evgeniia Kolodko of Russia upgraded to silver and fourth-place finisher Gong Lijiao of China moved up to bronze. Adams now has a second gold to go with her victory in Beijing four years ago.

The IOC took more than 5,000 urine and blood samples in London, including no-notice controls conducted outside competition. Until the shot put case, the games were set to end with medal standings in all 302 events unaltered by doping scandals.

The 31-year-old Ostapchuk, world champion in 2005, recorded the biggest shot put mark in a decade in the lead up to the Olympics. She won the gold with a mark of 21.36 meters.

The IOC said she tested positive for the steroid metenolone on Aug. 5, a day before her competition, and immediately after she won the event. The “A” and the backup “B” samples from both tests came back positive.