DOPING: IOC SANCTIONS 16 ATHLETES

Lausanne – The International Olympic Committee(IOC) has sanctioned 16 athletes for taking performance enhancing drugs at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The athletes are Khadzhimurat AKKAEV, Khasan BAROEV, Dmitry LAPIKOV, Elena SLESARENKO, of the Russian Federation, Natalya DAVYDOVA, Vita PALAMAR , Denys YURCHENKO (Ukraine), Chrysopigi DEVETZI(Greece), Mariya GRABOVETSKAYA, Asset MAMBETOV, Maya MANEZA, Irina NEKRASSOVA, Vladimir SEDOV (Kazakhstan), Iryna KULESHA, ( Belarus), Nizami PASHAYEV and Vitaliy RAHIMOV, (Azerbaijan).

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Denis Oswald (Chairman), Gunilla Lindberg and Ugur Erdener found the athletes to have committed anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008 and disqualified all of them.

They are to return all the medals they obtained from the games to the IOC. The Olympic committees in each of the affected nations are to ensure that the medals and diploma collected at the games are returned and the records adjusted accordingly.