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Journalism of Courage
London, october 12: A freestyle wrestler is in line to become the third athlete from the Sydney Olympics to be stripped of a gold medal after failing a drug test. Two wrestlers tested positive for banned substances during the final weekend of the Sydney Games on September 30 to October 1, a senior Olympic medical official said on Wednesday. One of the wrestlers won a gold medal, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The second was a non-medallist.
The identities of the two competitors were not disclosed. Of the eight gold medals awarded in freestyle wrestling, four were won by competitors from Russia and one each by wrestlers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Germany and Canada. The International Olympic Committee medical commission will hold a closed-door hearing with the two wrestlers and their representatives on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland. If found guilty of doping offences, they face being disqualified from the games, and the Olympic champion would lose his gold medal. One of the wrestlers is believed to have tested positive for the steroid nandrolone, and the other for a weight-loss diuretic.
Michel Dusson, secretary general of the international wrestling federation (FILA), declined to comment, saying the cases were being handled by the IOC.
