Four track and field athletes from the Athens Olympics were ordered to give back their trophy's after testing positive to doping.
The Associated Press reported that the International Olympic Committee disqualified four athletes after doping samples were retested this year and were positive for steroids. They included, Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine who won gold in shot put, silver medalist in hammer throw, Svetlana Krivelyova or Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus.
Weightlifter Oleg Perepechenov of Russia who won bronze, could also get his medal stripped but they are waiting on results.
The AP reported that the IOC said it will ask for the medals back and readjust the results and rankings.
The Athens Games have already come back with 26 doping cases and have caught six medalists at the time. With the newly released results it brings the total to 31 doping cases.
"The IOC said Bilonog and Krivelyova tested positive for oxandrolone, while the samples from Tsikhan and Yatchenko were positive for methandienone," reported The AP.
The New York Times reports that when Bilonog's samples were tested in 2004, they came back negative but eight years later with new tests, officials decided to retest about 100 samples from the games, focusing on medalists from certain sports.
"Additional analyses were performed with analytical methods which were not available in 2004," the IOC said in a statement, according to the The New York Times.
John Fahey President of the World Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement reported The New York Times, "Athletes who cheat by using doping substances must understand that just because they get away with it one day, there is a very good chance that they will be caught in the future."
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