Four athletes stripped of 2004 Athens medals

Four athletes from the 2004 Athens Olympics have been stripped of their medals for using anabolic steroids.

Ukraine's Yuriy Bilonog, Ivan Tsikhan and Irina Yatchenko of Belarus, and Russia's Svetlana Krivelyova have all been ordered to hand back their medals.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), reanalysed several samples in a bid to catch those who had avoided detection.

The IOC put off a final decision on stripping Lance Armstrong of his 2000 Sydney Olympics bronze meda

Armstrong, whose medal came in the individual time trial, was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by cycling's governing body the UCI in October and banned for life, following the US Anti-Doping Agency's report of widespread doping.

However, IOC president, Jacques Rogge said the body could not take the medal away until the UCI notified Armstrong of its decision to annul all his results since August 1998.

Three-times world hammer champion Tsikhan, who was withdrawn from the London Olympics, after the banned substances were found in samples from Athens, lost his silver medal.

A case involving a fifth unnamed athlete is still pending.

One hundred samples from the Olympics in Athens were retested for banned substances with more modern methods.

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