The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stripped three Russian athletes of their medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on charges of doping.
Two Russian weightlifters, silver medalist Marina Shainova and bronze medalist Nadezhda Evstyukhina, were found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs when their samples from the 2008 Games were retested.
Russian silver medalist in the 4x400m relay, Tatyana Firova, was also found guilty of doping. The team’s second place finish has since been annulled.
None of the athletes competed for Russia during the recent Olympics in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro.
The IOC announced the results as part of its strategic anti-doping program, which includes the re-analysis of stored samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. The retesting has already seen two Russian weightlifters lose their bronze medals from the 2008 Games.
Russia finished fourth in the overall medal table at this summer's Olympic Games, despite rulings which saw more than 100 Russian athletes barred from competing. The controversy followed a damning report from the World Anti-Doping Agency into extensive state-sponsored doping across Russian sport.
The International Paralympic Committee has also banned the entire Russian team from competing at next month’s Paralympic Games. Russia’s Paralympic Committee has announced that it will hold its own competition in Moscow next month.
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