From Inside the Games
Usain Bolt has claimed he would have no problem handing back his 4×100 metres relay Olympic gold medal from Beijing 2008 if Jamaican team-mate Nesta Carter is confirmed to have failed a drugs test.
Carter, winner of the gold medal in the Chinese capital along with Michael Frater, Asafa Powell and Bolt in a world record time of 37.10sec, was one of 31 athletes to test positive following the retesting of samples using new methods, according to reports.
The 30-year-old reportedly failed for banned stimulant methylhexanamine.
insidethegames reported on Thursday (June 9) that his B-sample also tested positive.
The Jamaican Olympic Association have confirmed an unnamed athlete from the country had failed at Beijing 2008, but neither Carter nor his agent, Adrian Laidlaw, have commented on the reports.
Bolt, the 100m and 200m world record holder and six-time Olympic gold medallist, told Reuters: “It’s heartbreaking [the positive test] because over the years you’ve worked hard to accumulate gold medals and work hard to be a champion…but it’s just one of those things.
“Things happen in life, so when it’s confirmed or whatever, if I need to give back my gold medal I’d have to give it back, it’s not a problem for me.”
Carter, one of Jamaica’s most successful sprinters, also won an Olympic relay gold medal at London 2012 and at three separate editions of the World Championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The International Olympic Committee are already re-testing all London 2012 samples submitted by athletes who failed in Beijing.
The case is slightly complicated, however, because methylhexanamine was only added by name to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list in 2010, although it was indirectly banned before then in a catch-all category.
Carter could face a backdated ban of two-years, the maximum sanction for the offence at the time of the WADA rules, although some past methylhexanamine cases have resulted in a warning rather than a ban.
