Nadzeya Ostapchuk Stripped Of Gold Medal For Doping

Last week, Nadzeya Ostapchuk was the pride of Belarus when she claimed a gold medal in the shot put event. On Monday morning, however, her Olympic glory disappeared as she became the first athlete from the 2012 London Olympics to be stripped of a gold medal for doping.

The Huffington Post reports that Valerie Adams of New Zealand will now be credited with the gold medal. Evgeniia Kolodko of Russia will take silver and Gong Lijiao of China will take Bronze.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement:

“The (Olympic committee) of Belarus is ordered to return to the IOC, as soon as possible, the medal, diploma and medallist pin awarded to the athlete in relation to the above-noted event.”

The IOC said that Ostapchuk was tested the before the competition and the day after. Both drug tests turned up positive for the steroid mentenolone.

Ostapchuck was the second athlete to test positive for drugs during the 2012 London Olympics but the first to lose a medal. US Judo fighter Nick Delpopolo was disqualified after his 7th place finish after he tested positive for marijuana.

But Ostapchuck and Delpopolo aren’t the only two athletes to end their Olympic journey on a bad note. A Swiss soccer player and a Greek triple-jumper were sent home for making racist remarks, an Australian rower was sent home after a drunken rampage through Olympic Village, 8 badminton players were expelled from the games for purposely losing matches, and a German rower was expelled for having ties to a Neo-Nazi group.