Kazakhstan athlete stripped of 2016 Olympic gold medal for doping offence

Kazakhstan's Nijat Rahimov has been banned from weightlifting and stripped of his Olympic gold medal due to a doping offence.

Rahimov's clean and jerk lift of 214kg at the 2016 Rio Olympics surpassed the previous world record mark set by Russia's Oleg Perepetchenov in 2001 (Photo: BBC Sport)

Kazakhstan's Nijat Rahimov has been stripped of his 2016 Rio Olympics weightlifting gold medal and banned for eight years for a doping offence.

The 28-year-old has been found guilty of "substituting his urine" four times which, under weightlifting anti-doping rules, is "use of a prohibited method".

As a result, all of his results from 15 March 2016 onwards have been removed.

The 2015 world champion was banned for two years in June 2013 after testing positive for anabolic steroids.

Rahimov went on to win the -77kg division in Rio a year later, lifting a then-world record 214kg in the clean and jerk.

A statement from the Court of Arbitration for Sport added: "In January 2021, further to a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into irregularities in sample collection in the sport of weightlifting, the International Testing Agency served a notice of charge on Nijat Rahimov.

"The Sole Arbitrator found Nihat Rahimov to be responsible for four urine substitutions which constitute anti-doping rule violations of "use of a prohibited method" under Article 2.2 of the International Weightlifting Federation anti-doping rules." (BBC Sport)