Usain Bolt had to give up one of his nine Olympic gold medals on Wednesday after his Jamaican teammate, Nesta Carter, tested positive for a banned substance.
The 30-year-old track phenom completed an unprecedented “triple triple” at Rio in 2016, becoming the only man to win all three sprint events at three Olympic Games.
But the gold Bolt won in the 4x100m relay in Beijing 2008 will no longer count after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualified Jamaica’s sprint team on Wednesday. Re-analysis of Carter’s samples from Beijing resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substance methylhexaneamine.
This means that all four members of the team — Bolt, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater and Carter, a bronze medalist at the 2013 World Championships – must give up their titles.
Speaking last summer about the Carter situation, Bolt — the 100m and 200m world record holder — said returning one of his golds would be “heartbreaking,” but added that he would not have a problem doing so.
Below, it’s like it never happened:
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