October 20/04 4:43 am - Russia Appeals Hamilton's Gold Medal at Court of Arbitration for Sport

Posted by Editoress on 10/20/04
 

Russia Appeals Hamilton's Gold Medal
Associated Press

The Russian Olympic Committee has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport seeking to strip American cyclist Tyler Hamilton of his Olympic time-trial gold medal and give it to Vyacheslav Ekimov because of a doping controversy.

A committee statement said the appeal was filed with the Lausanne, Switzerland-based court last Thursday.

"The ROC insists on the disqualification of Hamilton,'' the statement said.

Hamilton edged Ekimov in the Athens Olympics in August.

An initial doping test led to suspicions Hamilton had used a blood transfusion to boost his endurance. But the International Olympic Committee abandoned its probe in September because the American's backup specimen mistakenly was frozen and there weren't enough red blood cells left to analyze.

Hamilton kept his medal because an athlete is considered guilty of doping only when both samples come back positive.