This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Uzbek freestyle wrestler Artur Taymazov has been stripped of his London 2012 Olympic gold medal after re-analysis of stored samples, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday.

Taymazov, whose 2008 gold was taken away in 2017 after a re-testing of samples from the Beijing Games, is the 60th athlete to be disqualified from the London Olympics after the event.

Only nine athletes were caught by anti-doping tests during those Games.

The IOC said Taymazov, who won men’s freestyle 120kg gold at three successive Games, had been disqualified from the results after a positive test for the prohibited substance Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (oral turinabol).

The Russian-born Uzbek was ordered to return the London medal. He also won gold at Athens in 2004 and a 130kg silver in Sydney in 2000. His London gold had made him the most successful freestyle competitor in Olympic history.

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The 120kg silver medallist from London 2012, Georgian Davit Modzmanashvili, was stripped of that medal in January this year after a re-analysis also tested positive for oral turinabol.

Reanalysis of samples from 2012 will continue this year before the statute of limitations is reached by 2020.