Britain’s men’s 4x100m relay team has been stripped of its 2020 Olympic silver medal after CJ Ujah’s failed doping test at the Tokyo Games was confirmed. The news marks the biggest doping scandal in British Olympic history, and only the third time a Team GB athlete has lost a medal at summer or winter Games.
In 1988 Kerrith Brown lost his bronze medal in judo at the Seoul Games after testing positive for a banned substance. The skier Alain Baxter lost his alpine slalom bronze medal in 2002 after using a Vicks inhaler purchased in the US. It later transpired that the same inhaler bought in the UK did not contain the illegal substance.
The news was confirmed following a hearing at the court of arbitration for sport in November but only revealed on Friday. It found that the 27-year-old sprinter did have two banned substances in a urine sample, ostarine and S-23, which are known as selective androgen receptor modulators that mimic testosterone in the body.
Ujah had blamed his failed test on a contaminated supplement. However under the strict liability rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency that is no defence.
In a statement Ujah said: “I accept the decision issued by the court of arbitration for sport today with sadness. I would like to make it clear that I unknowingly consumed a contaminated supplement and this was the reason why an anti-doping rule violation occurred at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
“I sincerely regret that this has inadvertently led to the forfeiture of the men’s 4x100m relay team’s Olympic silver medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games. I would like to apologise to my teammates, their families and support teams for the impact which this has had on them. That is something I will regret for the rest of my life.”
The British men’s quartet of Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake missed out on the 4x100m title by just a hundredth of a second in Tokyo, as the anchor-leg runner Mitchell-Blake was overhauled on the line by Italy’s Filippo Tortu.
However, days later it was revealed that Ujah had tested positive for ostarine, which is used to treat muscle wasting and osteoporosis, and S‑23, which targets the muscle and bone tissues to promote muscle growth and bone health.
The length of Ujah’s ban will now be determined in a future hearing by the Athletics Integrity Unit but it could be as long as four years.
A spokesperson for UK Athletics said it was in regular communication with the athletes concerned, but added that it would not be making public comment on the case until after the World Athletics/AIU process which will follow on from this Cas outcome.
The news means that Canada are upgraded to silver behind the gold medallists, Italy, while China now take bronze. Britain’s medal tally from the Tokyo 2020 Games is reduced to 64.
In a strongly worded statement the British Olympic Association issued an apology to all Ujah’s opponents after he was found to have doped. “We have always been unequivocal and consistent in our stance against doping. All athletes, wherever they are from, deserve to go to the start line knowing they are in clean competition,” it said.
“It is with deep sorrow that colleagues and opponents of Ujah were not able to be reassured of this fact in Tokyo. Having spent the last few years retrospectively awarding numerous British athletes with medals they should have won on the day at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Sochi 2014, we understand first-hand the hurt and loss doping can cause. On behalf of everyone in British sport we unreservedly apologise to the athletes whose moment was lost in Tokyo due to the actions of Ujah.
“We are also disappointed for the three colleagues of Ujah who, through no fault of their own, will now lose their silver medals.”
