Usain Bolt Stripped Of Gold Medal After Teammate Tests Positive For Doping

Usain Bolt has been stripped of one of his nine good medals thanks to a teammate testing positive for doping.

Usain Bolt and Nesta Carter participated in the 4×100 relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Last year,  the International Olympic Committee retested 454 samples from the 2008 Games.  In June it was announced that Carter tested positive for a banned stimulant called Methylhexaneamine, which has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code prohibited list since 2004.

Historically, the sanction for the use of Methylhexanamine has been a suspension of six months to a year and the loss of results from the period in question.  On Wednesday, the IOC came to a decision regarding what punishments to pass down. As a result of the new findings, Usain Bolt, Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Nickel Ashmeade have been disqualified and will lose their 4×100 relay gold medal. Trinidad & Tobago will now be awarded the gold. Japan has been upgraded to the silver medal and Brazil will get the bronze.

The IOC is retesting samples in an attempt to use new developments in testing techniques to expose traces of drugs that were undetectable in 2008 and 2012. In the new batch of tested samples,  more than 30 athletes tested positive from the 2008 Olympics, and 3 more from the 2012 games.

Reportedly, Nesta Carter is the first Jamaican to be disqualified from the Olympic games for doping.