Six Olympic medal-winning athletes from Kazakhstan have failed to return their medals after being stripped of them by the International Olympic Committee for doping violations.
The Kazakh Olympic Committee said in a statement on April 26 that three weightlifters and two wrestlers had refused to return their medals.
Weightlifter Svetlana Podobedova, meanwhile, said she had lost her gold medal, according to the committee.
"The search for the medal continues," the committee said.
The six tested positive for steroids at the 2008 or 2012 Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee retested its stored samples from those games in 2016, amid the scandal over Russia's state-sponsored campaign that helped athletes use banned drugs and then hide them from anti-doping regulators.
During the retesting, experts found widespread doping by Kazakh medalists.
Six Kazakh Olympic Athletes Fail To Return Medals After Doping Violations
- By RFE/RL
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