4 more athletes stripped of medals from Bejing Olympics

The International Olympic Committee has stripped four more athletes of medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after their doping samples were retested and came back positive. (Anja Niedringhaus/AP)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Intenational Olympic Committee has stripped four more athletes — including three Russians — of medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after their doping samples were retested and came back positive.

A total of six athletes were sanctioned Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee based on re-analysis of their samples with improved techniques. They were among the 98 positive cases recorded in the retesting of samples from Beijing and the 2012 LondonOlympics.

The IOC says Tatyana Firova was stripped of her silver medal in the women’s 4×400-meter relay after testing positive for turinabol and other steroids. She also had her ninth-place finish in the individual 400 annulled.

Russia had already been stripped of the relay medal earlier this month when Anastasia Kapachinskaya tested positive.