LAUSANNE • Sixteen athletes, including 10 medallists, were disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for doping at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The 10 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 Kazakh weightlifter Irina Nekrassova.

The seven bronze medallists included four weightlifters - Russians Khadzhimurat Akkaev (+94 kg) and Dmitry Lapikov (+105), Ukrainian Natalya Davydova (+69) and Kazakh Mariya Grabovetskaya (+75), plus Greco-Roman wrestler Asset Mambetov of Kazakhstan, Ukrainian pole vaulter Denys Yurchenko and Greek triple jumper Chrysopigi Devetzi.

The six others disqualified were weightlifters and athletes from Russia, Azerbaidjan, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The IOC have re-tested over 1,243 samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics based on improved techniques. The build-up to the 2016 Rio Games was overshadowed after a report found evidence of a state-sponsored doping programme in Russian sport.

Russia narrowly escaped a blanket ban from Rio when the IOC left it up to international sports federations to determine which athletes were eligible to compete while granting itself a final say.

A total of 111 athletes from its 389-strong contingent were banned from competing in Brazil.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE