Three More Athletes Stripped of Beijing Medals

(ATR) Six athletes, including three medalists, are the latest to be caught doping at the Beijing Olympics.

They all failed tests after their stored samples from the 2008 Games were reanalyzed as part of the IOC’s efforts "to provide a level playing field for all clean athletes."

Five of the six athletes were weightlifters. Marina Shainova of Russia loses her silver medal in the 58kg event, Nadezda Evstyukhina of Russia loses her bronze medal at 75kg and Tigran Martirosyan of Armenia loses his bronze medal at 69 kg. The other two weightlifters were Alexandru Dudoglo of Moldova, who finished ninth in the men’s 69kg and Intigam Zairov of Azerbaijan, who finished ninth in the men’s 85kg event.

A third Russian, Tatyana Firova, competed in the women’s 400m and 4x400m in Beijing, finishing sixth and second with her teammates, respectively. Firova had already lost her silver medal in the 4x400m earlier this month when Anastasia Kapachinskaya was found guilty of doping following reanalysis of her samples.

The IOC announcement comes on the heels of a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark this week of 17 National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs) and the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations (iNADO).

Topping the list of recommendations from the summit is the call to end the practice of allowing any anti-doping official to also serve in a leadership role in international sport. Current WADA president Craig Reedie, for example, is an executive board member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Reedie has been criticized for a potential conflict of interest between those two jobs.

According to reports, the NADOs also called for increased funding for WADA, as long as the money does not come from the IOC. Other recommendations included term limits for anti-doping officials and additional sanctions for Russia in the wake of the McLaren Report that revealed a state-sponsored doping system in the country.

WADA acknowledged the proposals in a statement on Wednesday, saying that they are "intended to strengthen WADA and, as a result, the global anti-doping system".

"At this crucial time for clean sport, WADA is encouraged by this support and looks forward to continuing to work with its partners in leading the fight for the protection of clean athletes’ rights," said WADA Director General, Olivier Niggli.

WADA says the NADO proposals will be on the agenda for both the first in a series of multi-stakeholder Think Tank meetings on September 20 and the traditional Executive Committee meeting the day after that.

Written by Gerard Farek

Homepage photo: Getty Images

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