Kazakhstan says weightlifter Ilya Ilyin, one of the sport's biggest names, has been stripped of his two Olympic gold medals.
The Kazakhstan Olympic Committee said in a statement on Wednesday it had received formal notification from the International Olympic Committee stripping Ilyin of the gold medals he won in 2008 and 2012, both in the 94-kilogram class. The IOC has yet to comment.
Samples Ilyin gave at the Beijing and London Games were retested this year using improved detection techniques as part of an IOC program to catch drug cheats who escaped detection at the time.
The reanalysis found traces of the banned steroids stanozolol and turinabol in Ilyin's samples, the International Weightlifting Federation said in June.
Ilyin is one of the biggest celebrities in weightlifting with over 400,000 followers on Instagram, and was the only Kazakh athlete to win two Olympic gold medals.
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