Dimitri Bilozerchev, who won three gold medals...

Dimitri Bilozerchev, who won three gold medals in the 1988 Olympics, and a colleague were kicked off the Soviet team for the World Gymnastics Championships because of a two-day drinking binge, a newspaper in Moscow reported.

Bilozerchev, 22, and teammate Vladimir Gogoladze “had a corrupting influence on other members of the team,” top Soviet gymnastics official Leonid Arkayev told Sovietsky Sport. They were removed from the squad, he said.

The newspaper said the pair’s fate was not unique in Soviet sports: “The situation is so typical for our sports, that this almost doesn’t require any elaboration, commentaries or conclusions.”