Before Kamila Valieva, there was Andreea Raducan (and also Rick DeMont)

BEIJING — Before Kamila Valieva, there was Andreea Raducan.

And before Andreea Raducan, there was Rick DeMont.

Raducan and DeMont are two of the most famous cases of Olympic drug testing penalizing athletes for a banned substance they inadvertently had in their systems.

Both were stripped of Olympic gold medals and have tried in vain to get them back.

“It’s a general principle of law that the law which applies to a case is the law valid at the moment the infringement was made,” said Denis Oswald, the IOC member who chaired the commission investigating Russian systemic doping following the 2014 Olympics.

“Therefore, I’m pretty certain that the law regarding doping in 1972 was not the same as what it is now. The world anti-doping code did not exist, so it’s very difficult to go back and review a case based on a new law that did not exist at the time.”

DeMont was 16 years old when he represented the United States at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in swimming. DeMont won the gold medal in the men’s 400-meter freestyle and then underwent a routine doping test.

He tested positive for ephedrine, which was an ingredient in his prescription asthma medication. DeMont had declared his asthma medications on his medical disclosure forms, but the U.S. Olympic Committee had not cleared them with the IOC’s medical committee.

As a further punishment, DeMont was not allowed to swim in any other events at the Olympics, including the 1,500 meters, a race in which he held the world record.

His appeal for reinstatement was rejected twice by the IOC prior to 1996. “It was a long shot, definitely,” DeMont said after his second appeal. “I was disappointed, but not surprised.”

DeMont was a longtime coach at the University of Arizona before retiring to concentrate full-time on being a painter. He specializes in water colors.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Raducan was a 16-year-old Romanian gymnast. In the Olympic record books, she won a team gold medal and a silver medal in vault. In real life, she was also the all-around champion, the most coveted title in gymnastics.

However, Raducan was stripped of her all-around gold medal after testing positive for pseudoephedrine — a drug familiar to most people because it is found in over-the-counter cold medicines.

In fact, Raducan, who had been contending with a fever and a cough, did take a cold medicine tablet a few hours before competition that was approved by her team doctor. She said it made her feel dizzy. Her teammate Simona Amanar was also given the medication, but she did not test positive because she weighed more than Raducan.

Romania initially swept the medals, with Raducan scoring 38.893 points, followed by Amanar (38.642) and Maria Olaru (38.581). Liu Xuan of China was fourth.

Raducan also won the silver in vault. But before she competed in the floor exercise event, she was told there was a chance she could be stripped of her all-around medal. This affected Raducan mentally and she fell on her third tumbling pass, posting a score that could have earned the bronze medal if not for the fall.

When her test after the all-around came back positive, Raducan was disqualified. She was allowed to keep her medals in the team and vault events because she did not test positive after them. Raducan appealed to the Court oF Arbitration for Sport. She was personally exonerated and was not subject to any disciplinary measures. But her medal was not returned.

CAS said the anti-doping code had to be enforced “without compromise” and regardless of the intentions or age of the athlete. The team doctor, however, was banned for two Olympic cycles and Ion Tiriac, the president of the Romanian Olympic Committee resigned over the scandal.

The three medalists in the event believed Raducan was the true winner. Xuan said, “I feel very sad and sorry for her that this problem occurred. I can’t make sense of it… In gymnastics, we rely on technique to complete our moves. It’s not possible to rely on drugs or strength; you have to rely on skill.”

While the IOC has decreed that there be no medal ceremony if Valieva wins a medal in the women’s singles figure skating event Thursdaynight, in 2000 the medalists declined a formal ceremony for the reallocation of awards.

Amanar and Olaru even considered refusing their medals, but decided it was better for Romania to accept them.

Raducan has worked since then to be re-instated as the gold medalist. Raducan even approached IOC president Thomas Bach when he visited Bucharest in 2014. He invited her to meet with him at IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

They met in 2015. After the meeting, Bach said, “This decision was very tough for Andreea and was not easily taken by the IOC at the time. It shows how strict our anti-doping rules are by having to apply the principle of strict liability of the athlete. On the other hand I feel a great deal of sympathy for her because she has to suffer from a mistake by her team doctor. Even more so because this happened at the age of 16, when as an athlete you have absolute confidence in your medical team.”

According to a story on Olympics.com, “The fact that she was not disqualified from the Games, but could keep her gold medal in the team event and go on to win a silver medal after the incident shows that the IOC attached no blame to her.”

Raducan, who is a sports announcer and journalist in Romania and is considered a role model, said after her visit, “I know that the president understands my disappointment. As a gymnast, you usually get one Games to show the world what you can do.”

She did, but her greatest achievement has been erased. However, a Romanian jeweler did make her a replacement medal in pure gold. The actual Olympic medals are gold-plated silver.

KEEP READING: