Olympic women's shot put winner Irina Korzhanenko of Russia has been stripped of her medal and thrown out of the Games after failing a doping test the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced here on Monday.
Korzhanenko tested positive after winning the Olympic title on August 18 for stanozolol, a banned anabolic steroid, said an IOC spokeswoman.
It is the first time since the Ben Johnson scandal at the 1988 Seoul Games that a gold medallist in the Olympics' showpiece track and field competition has failed a drugs test.
The Russian won the gold medal two days before the full athletics programme got underway in a competition north of Athens at Olympia, the ancient birthplace of the Games.
She had previously been found guilty of doping and was stripped of the 1999 World Indoor title for her offence.
Korzhanenko would have gone into the record books as the first woman champion at the site of the ancient Games, as well as the first athletics champion of this particular edition of the modern Games.
"I kept thinking before this competition that the silver was the best I could hope for so I think the Greek gods helped me win this gold medal as conditions were far from ideal," the 30-year-old said at the time of her victory.
{{/usCountry}}"I kept thinking before this competition that the silver was the best I could hope for so I think the Greek gods helped me win this gold medal as conditions were far from ideal," the 30-year-old said at the time of her victory.
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