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Fifth Athlete Perepechyonov Unveiled and Asked to Return His Athens Bronze Medal for Doping |
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Olympics - 13 Dec 2012 - Russia’s Oleg Perepechyonov has become the fifth athlete from the 2004 Olympic Games to be asked to return his medal for doping following retesting of samples taken during the games.
Perepechyonov, who won a bronze medal in weightlifting, is the second Russian on the list of five athletes who have had to hand back their medals. The four others were unveiled by the International Olympic Committee last week, but it said that the fifth case was still pending. All five are from eastern European countries and competed in sports involving strength.
The others are: Ukraine’s Yuriy Bilonog (gold medal, men’s shot put); Russia’s Svetlana Krivelyova (bronze, women’s shot put); Belarus’s Ivan Tsikhan (silver, men’s hammer); and Belarus’ Iryna Yatchenko (bronze, women’s discus).
Perepechyonov yesterday protested his innocence, saying: “I was tested so many times prior to and after the 2004 games and they found nothing. Now they are telling me they had found some funny substance which is useless for a weightlifter. Where is fair play here?”
The IOC retested about 100 samples in a bid to catch doping cheats using methods that were not available at the time of the games.
The IOC has been storing athletes’ samples after Olympic Games for subsequent retesting, but the process is subject to an eight-year legal statute of limitations, meaning that this was the last opportunity to retest Athens samples.
Sportcal
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