The International Olympic Committee on Thursday stripped three Kazakh weightlifters of gold medals won at the London 2012 Games for doping. Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Maiya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova were all caught in new testing of hundreds of samples from the London and 2008 Beijing Olympics. A weightlifter from Belarus who won a bronze medal was also disqualified by the IOC. Russian weightlifter Besik Kudokov who won a silver in London also failed a doping test but the medal was not taken away because he died in 2013.
Chinshanlo, now 30, Maneza, 30, and Podobedova, 29, all tested positive for the steroid stanozol. Chinshanlo was also found to have taken oxandrolone, another steroid. Both substances promote muscle growth. Chinshanlo won the 53kg category in London, Maneza won the 63kg gold and Podobedova the 75kg contest. Marina Shkermankova of Belarus who took bronze in the women's 69kg category was also among eight new doping cheats announced by the IOC.
The IOC has said that at least 98 competitors failed drug tests from Beijing and London after a new analysis was carried out on more than 1,240 samples using improved equipment. About 10 gold medalists from London have now lost their titles or are at risk of losing them because of doping - four are athletes from Belarus. Three Chinese weightlifting gold medal winners from Beijing have been stripped of their titles because of doping.