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.
