I’m sure Usain Bolt is pissed right now, because a teammate is messing with his legacy. Bolt’s going to have to return his 2008 Olympic relay gold medal after Jamaican teammate Nesta Carter tested positive for a banned substance, the BBC reports.
Here’s the thing: If I’m Carter, I’m pissed, too. Why is a sample given in 2008 just being tested in 2017? Turns out that the International Olympic Committee selected 454 doping samples to be retested, and Carter’s sample was one. Carter, 31, tested positive for methylhexanamine, which the BBC notes has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency since 2004. In 2011 WADA reclassified the banned stimulant as a “specified substance,” meaning one that is more susceptible to a “credible, non-doping explanation,” according to the BBC. It was sold as a nasal decongestant in the U.S. until 1983.
Carter, Bolt, Michael Frater and Asafa Powell were teammates on the winning 4x100-meter relay team and will all have to forfeit their medals.
“The Jamaican team is disqualified,” the IOC said in a statement viewed by the Associated Press. “[T]the corresponding medals, medalist pins and diplomas are withdrawn and shall be returned.”