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Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has stripped three athletes of their medals and diplomas after reviewing results of drug tests in August in Beijing. Samples from the Games, which under new rules will be held for eight years, have all been returned to Lausanne for storage and another 500 tests will be run in January.

Vadim Devyatovskiy, Belarus, who placed won silver in the men’s hammer throw event, has been banned for his lifetime and “is permanently ineligible for all future Olympic Games in any capacity” because it is the second time he’s been found to have broken anti-doping rules, the IOC ruled.
The other two athletes are Ivan Tsikhan, also Belarus and the bronze medal winner in the men’s hammer throw event, and Adam Seroczynski of Poland, who came fourth in the kayak double (K2) 1,000m men’s event. In the case of Seroczynski, his two-man team was disqualified despite the other athlete not testing  positive for drugs.

The IOC’s testing in 2008 far surpasses that for any previous Games: 4,770 doping tests were carried out in Beijing. They included 3,801 urine and 969 blood tests. Urine tests included 817 EPO (an endurance enhancing hormone) tests, and blood tests covered 471 human Growth Hormone (hGH) tests.

Athletes who qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency and BOCOG under the authority of the IOC. The tests were run over a 29-day period from 27 July until 24 August 2008. As a general rule, all top five finishers, plus a further two, were tested, the IOC says.

The tests to be run in January, at laboratories in Cologne, Paris and Lausanne, will be EPO and insulin tests on samples from 500 athletes who competed in endurance sports – endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics. Results will be publicized towards the end of March 2009.

Samples are being held for eight years, says the IOC, to allow it “to analyze samples retroactively should fully validated tests to detect new substances/methods become available.”