Tervel Dlagnev coaching Kyle Snyder at Final X (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Uzbekistan wrestler Artur Taymazov, two-time Olympic gold medalist in men's freestyle at 120 kilograms/264 pounds, has just been stripped of his 2012 London title, two years after giving up his Olympic championship from the 2008 Beijing games.
One result: U.S. wrestler Tervel Dlagnev, who placed fifth in Taymazov's bracket at the 2012 London Olympics, is now expected to be awarded an Olympic bronze medal at this weight class, USA Wrestling reported Tuesday afternoon. Dlagnev, a two-time world bronze medalist, lost to Taymazov by a fall in the 2012 Olympic Games semifinals. The American heavyweight then lost to Iran's Komeil Ghasemi in the bronze-medal match.
For Taymazov, there may have been a sense of history repeating itself ... as it was the same issue that cost Taymazov his 2008 and 2012 gold medals: a retest of samples originally taken at the time of those past Olympics tested positive for the banned steroid turinabol. (In addition, his sample from the 2008 Games also retested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)
Artur Taymazov at the 2012 Olympics in London (Photo/Andrew Hipps)Taymazov is only the second athlete to have been stripped of two Olympic gold medals, according to the NBC Sports Olympic website. He now joins Kazakh weightlifter Ilya Ilyin who also lost 2008 and 2012 titles after having original doping samples retested long after the Games.
Taymazov was a four-time Olympic medalist. In addition to the 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medals, the Uzbek superheavyweight wrestler had won silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and gold at the 2004 Athens Games.
After Taymazov was stripped of his 2008 gold medal in April 2017, the results for the other placers were updated, and the finishers received upgraded medals. For the 2012 Olympics, the situation is more complicated, as now both 120-kilogram men's freestyle finalists have failed drug retests. The silver medalist, Davit Modzmanashvil of Georgia, was stripped of his medal in January after retesting of the original doping sample. The remaining medalists in that division -- Iran's Komeil Ghasemi and Russia's Bilyal Makhov -- both earned bronze medals. As mentioned earlier, USA's Tervel Dlagnev -- who placed fifth in London -- is expected to receive a bronze medal.
The International Olympic Committee has asked United World Wrestling to update its official results.
The 40-year-old Taymozov becomes the 68th athlete to have either failed a drugs test at London 2012 or been caught at a later date in retests.
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