2 min readNew DelhiOct 25, 2016 11:15 AM IST
First published on: Oct 25, 2016 at 01:49 AM IST
Yogeshwar Dutt had said he would refuse to accept the silver medal. (Source: Reuters)
Yogeshwar Dutt’s chances of having his London Olympics medal upgraded from bronze to silver vanished on Monday after the International Olympic Committee decided to drop an investigation into a deceased wrestler who allegedly tested positive for a banned steroid when an old sample was retested.
Russia’s Besik Kudukhov won the silver medal in the men’s freestyle 60kg category at the 2012 Olympics and died the following year in a car crash. In a statement, the Russian Wrestling Federation said his sample from the 2012 Games was retested this year and found to be positive for the steroid turinabol.
His case was passed to a three-member IOC disciplinary commission, comprising Denis Oswald of Switzerland, Sweden’s Gunilla Lindberg and Ugur Erdener from Turkey. On October 19, the committee decided to terminate the investigation against Kudukhov, the statement added.
“The International Olympic Committee will not deprive wrestler Besik Kudukhov of his silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London,” first deputy president of the Russian Wrestling Federation Georgy Bryusov, also a vice president of the United World Wrestling, said in the statement.
The IOC, which has not acknowledged any positive test by Kudukhov, said it was not able to comment on the case.
The IOC has been re-testing samples taken from both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 using up-to-date methods to detect banned substances.
There were suggestions that with Kudukhov testing positive, Dutt’s bronze medal that he won four years ago would be upgraded to silver.
The Indian, however, had said he would refuse to accept the silver medal, saying it should remain with the Russian’s family. “It will keep his family honour intact. For me, humanity is everything,” Dutt had said back then.
Dutt, who lost in the opening round of the Rio Olympics, has said he will focus more on his academy now on.
Yogeshwar Dutt had said he would refuse to accept the silver medal. (Source: Reuters)
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