Usain Bolt, Jamaica Stripped Of 2008 Olympic Gold Medal After Teammate Tests Positive For Doping

Usain Bolt now has eight Olympic gold medals, not nine.

Usain Bolt, Jamaica Stripped Of 2008 Olympic Gold Medal after teammate tests positive for doping

The 30-year-old sprinting star and the Jamaican team have been stripped of their 4×100-meter relay gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Games after one runner, Nesta Carter, was found guilty of a doping violation, the International Olympic Committee stated on Wednesday.

Carter initially tested negative following the 2008 race. His sample was one of 454 retested by the IOC last year, and has been discovered to contain the prohibited stimulant methylhexaneamine.

Bolt won the 100 meters, the 200 meters, and the 4×100 relay at the last three Summer Olympics, for a total of nine gold medals, tied for the most by any track athlete.

Scores of athletes from the Beijing and 2012 London Games have been found, upon retesting of their samples, to be guilty of doping violations. Several were medalists. 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 member of the winning 4×100 relay team in London in 2012, although no announcement regarding the status of that medal has been made. He is a three-time world champion in the relay as well.

Carter, 31, also helped Jamaica win at the World Championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

He ran the first leg for Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team in Beijing, which also included Michael Frater, Asafa Powell and Bolt.

The team won in a then-world record of 37.10 seconds, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago and Japan, whose medals could be upgraded. Brazil would then receive bronze. Team USA dropped the baton in its heat.

When one member of a team tests positive, it is typical for the entire team to be robbed of its medals, though there have been exceptions. Marion Jones lost two relay medals from 2000 due to doping violations, but her teammates were permitted to keep theirs following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Several members of the Russian track and field team were banned from participating in the 2016 Rio Games in August due to doping violations.

The IOC also revealed Wednesday that Russian Tatiana Lebedeva was disqualified from the 2008 long jump, in which she won the silver medal, and the triple jump due to a positive test.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 18: Usain Bolt of Jamaica celebrates winning the Men’s 200m Final on Day 13 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 18, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Article by Pablo Mena