Ossetia-born Uzbek super heavyweight wrestler Artur Taymazov became the second athlete to be stripped of gold medals from multiple Olympics for doping, losing his London 2012 title two years after giving up his Beijing 2008 crown.
Taymazov, still Uzbekistan’s most decorated Olympian with a silver from 2000 and a gold from 2004, was stripped of his 2008 and 2012 medals for the same reason: a retest of his doping sample came back positive for the banned steroid turinabol. His 2008 sample also retested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.
Taymazov joins Kazakh weightlifter Ilya Ilyin as the only Olympians to be stripped of Olympic gold medals from multiple Games. Ilyin also lost 2008 and 2012 titles after retesting of doping samples.
After Taymazov was stripped of his 2008 gold medal, the other finishers were upgraded. The 2012 Olympic silver medalist in his division, Davit Modzmanashvil of Georgia, was stripped of his medal in January after doping sample retesting.
Wrestling awards multiple bronze medals. Iranian Komeil Ghasemi and Russian Bilyal Makhov earned those in 2012 in the super heavyweight division.
American Tervel Dlagnev, who coaches 2012 Olympic champion Kyle Snyder, lost to Taymazov in the semifinals and ended up fifth, the first man out of the original medals.
The IOC requested United World Wrestling to modify the results of the event.
