Usain Bolt might get to keep Olympic gold medal as relay teammate appeals doping case
There is a chance Usain Bolt can retain the gold medal that was stripped from him when a Jamaican relay teammate was found to have cheated at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
That teammate, Nesta Carter, filed an appeal of the ruling on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Carter was caught in a recent doping crackdown by international sports officials, who are using newly developed scientific methods to analyze biological samples saved from previous Games.
When Carter’s sample from 2008 showed traces of a banned substance — methylhexaneamine — he was stripped of his 400-meter relay gold medal. So was the rest of Jamaica’s team, which included Bolt, Asafa Powell and Michael Frater.
Bolt, considered that greatest sprinter of all time, saw his career gold-medal count drop from nine to eight.
“It’s just one of those things,” he was quoted as saying at the time. “Things happen. I’m not happy about it, but what can I say?”
Carter is appealing his doping case to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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