The International Olympic Committee has stripped Russian cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina of her remaining medals from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games because of positive drug tests.
Meeting in Prague, the IOC executive board took the action Sunday, after Lazutina lost a series of appeals against her doping suspension.
Lazutina, one of the most decorated athletes in Winter Olympics history, had already lost her gold medal in the 30 kilometer classical race after testing positive for the banned endurance-enhancer darbepoetin at the games. She had been allowed to keep two silver medals and a fourth-place finish in other events because she passed drug tests after those races.
But after the Olympics, it beacame known that Lazutina and fellow Russian skier Olga Danilova had tested positive for the same drug months earlier. The international ski federation ruled they should have been ineligible to compete in Salt Lake City and banned them for two years. The Russians filed a series of appeals, which were turned down.
Under the amended results, Beckie Scott of Canada moves up to the silver medal in the 5K race and Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic goes from fourth to third. In the 15K event, Neumannova gets the silver and Julija Tchepalova of Russia the bronze.
No action was taken Sunday regarding Danilova's gold medal in the 5K race. The IOC said her appeals process is continuing. To avoid similar confusion in the future, the IOC board decided Sunday to amend its charter to allow the committee to strip an athlete of all medals from an Olympics for a single doping offense.