IOC Strips Leipold of Wrestling Gold

G E N E V A, Oct. 23 -- The International Olympic Committee strippedGerman freestyle wrestler Alexander Leipold of his Olympic goldmedal today after he failed a drug test.

The gold will now go to the silver medalist, Brandon Slay, ofAmarillo, Texas, who lost 4-0 to Leipold in the final of the 167½-pound division. South Korea’s Moon Eui Jae would move up fromthe bronze medal to silver, while Turkey’s Adem Bereket would gofrom fourth to third.

In a written statement, the IOC executive committee said it hadordered the German Olympic Committee to “withdraw and return”Leipold’s gold medal for the men’s 167 ½-pound category.

The IOC said Leipold’s urine samples indicated the presence ofNorandrosterone and Norethiocholanolone — precursors of nandrolone— in concentrations 10 times higher than the maximum permittedunder IOC rules.

Leipold Maintains Innocence

Leipold, the first German wrestler to ever test positive at theOlympics, appeared last week at a hearing of the IOC medicalcommission, which was investigating two positive drug cases inwrestling from the final weekend of the Sydney Games. Following thehearing, the medical commission recommended that Leipold bestripped of his medal.

Leipold maintains his innocence, saying he has no idea how hecould have tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroidwhich has produced a rash of drug scandals around the world overthe last two years.

“It’s not the kind of drug you take for wrestling,” he saidfollowing his hearing last week. “I don’t wrestle with power butwith tactic and technique.

“There are a lot of competitors, sportsmen, who have thisproblem. Nobody know what happens, what has nandrolone in it.”

Leipold said he was tested at the end of August and came outclean that time. He is the third athlete from the Sydney Olympicsto lose a gold medal for a doping offense.

The IOC executive committee also decided to officially excludeMongolian wrestler Oyunbileg Purevbaatar, who was found to haveused the diuretic furosemide after finishing fifth in the 127¾-pound class.