Jamaica, Usain Bolt stripped of relay gold medal after Nesta Carter doping test

The IOC says Carter tested positive for methylhexaneamine, a banned stimulant, in reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Carter and Bolt were teammates on the winning 4x100-metre relay team.

The IOC says “the Jamaican team is disqualified” and “the corresponding medals, medalist pins and diplomas are withdrawn and shall be returned.”

The relay title in Beijing completed the first of Bolt’s three gold-medal sweeps in the 100, 200 and relay at three straight Olympics.

Trinidad and Tobago is in line to get the gold medal from 2008, Japan could be upgraded to silver, and fourth-place finisher Brazil could get the bronze medal.

Carter testified by videoconference to an IOC disciplinary hearing held in Lausanne on October 17. The IOC’s ruling states that Carter noted he was taking supplements in 2008 “advised in this respect by his coach, Mr. Stephen Francis.”

“The athlete explained that he had given several samples for doping controls whilst he was taking Cell Tech and Nitro Tech before the 2008 Olympic Games and he had never tested positive for a prohibited substance,” the detailed verdict stated.

“He therefore did not believe that these supplements could contain prohibited substances. He did not understand how methylhexaneamine could have been found in 2016.”

Though methylhexaneamine was not specifically named on the 2008 list of prohibited substances, it “fell within the scope of the general prohibition of stimulants having a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect as the listed stimulants,” the three-member IOC panel wrote.

The loss of the relay gold deprives Bolt of one of his ‘triple triples’ — he won gold in the 100m, 200 and the 4x100m at Beijing and then went on to repeat the feat in London in 2012 and again in Rio last year.

Originally published as Jamaica, Bolt stripped of gold