IOC strips Russian high jumper Anna Chicherova of Beijing bronze medal
By Charlotte Bates
Last Updated: 06/10/16 5:22pm
Russian high jumper Anna Chicherova has been stripped of her bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics for doping, but keeps the gold medal she won four years later in London.
The 34-year-old was one of 98 athletes caught by the International Olympic Committee's recent re-analysis of doping samples from the Beijing and London Games.
An IOC statement read: "As part of this process, the IOC today announced that Anna Chicherova has been disqualified from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008."
Chicherova, who also won gold at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, was caught in the first of two waves of re-tests in May but has spent almost six months contesting every stage of the testing and disciplinary process.
A member of Moscow's famous Russian Army Athletics Club, Chicherova tested positive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol but has been told by the IOC that a urine sample she gave in London has been declared clean.
Her Beijing sample, taken a day after the final, was re-tested using a newly-developed technique that can detect trace elements of performance-enhancing substances.
What happens to Chicherova's bronze medal is now up to the International Association of Athletics Federations, with Russia's 2004 Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko currently in line to inherit it, although any samples she provided in Beijing will have to be re-analysed too.
