Olympics: Ten medallists from 2008 Beijing Games disqualified for doping

Canton of Vaud: Sixteen athletes, including ten medallists, were on Thursday disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for doping at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The ten medallists who competed in weightlifting, wrestling and athletics were all found to have taken banned substances after retesting of samples.

They included three silver medal winners -- Russian Khasan Baroev and Azeri Vitaliy Rahimov in Greco-Roman wrestling and Kazah weightlifter Irina Nekrassova.

The seven bronze medallists included four weightlifters -- Russians Khadzhimurat Akkaev (+94 kg) and Dmitry Lapikov (+105), Ukrainian Natalya Davydova (+69) and Kazak Mariya Grabovetskaya (+75), Greco-Roman wrestler Asset Mambetov of Kazakhstan, Ukrainian pole vaulter Denys Yurchenko and Greek triple jumper Chrysopigi Devetzi.

The six others disqualified were weightlifters and athletes from Russia, Azerbaidjan, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The IOC have re-tested over 1,243 samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics based on improved techniques.

The build-up to the 2016 Rio Games was overshadowed after a report found evidence of a state-sponsored doping programme in Russian sport.

Russia narrowly escaped a blanket ban from Rio when the IOC left it up to international sports federations to determine which Russians were eligible to compete while granting itself a final say.