IOC disqualifies four athletes for failing anti-doping tests at Beijing 2008 and London 2012

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Tuesday that four Russian athletes have been retroactively disqualified from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games.

Reanalysis of the athletes' samples yielded positive readings for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol).

The three disqualifications from Beijing 2008 are in athletics.

Maria Abakumova, 30, has been disqualified in the javelin throw, in which she was awarded the silver medal at Beijing 2008.

Inga Abitova, 34, competing in the 10,000m, has also been disqualified from the 2008 Beijing Games, where she ranked 6th and was awarded an Olympic diploma.

The third athlete disqualified from Beijing 2008 is Denis Alexeev, 28. He competed in round one of the 400m athletics event, in which he ranked 23rd.

Ekaterina Gnidenko, 23, competing in cycling at the track Keirin event, has been disqualified from the London 2012 Olympic Games, where she ranked 8th and received an Olympic diploma.

The additional analyses on samples collected during the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games were performed with improved analytical methods. These allowed the lab to detect prohibited substances that could not be identified by the analysis performed at the time of these editions of the Olympic Games. Endit