Czech javelin thrower and 2013 world champion Vítězslav Veselý is currently in Rio competing for Olympic gold.
Yesterday, he was surprised to find that he had been awarded a Bronze – his first Olympic medal – without even throwing the javelin. Qualifying throws will take place tomorrow.
That’s because the medal was for the 2012 London games, where Veselý came in fourth with an 83.34m throw; Ukrainian javelin thrower Oleksandr Pyatnytsya has been stripped of his Silver Medal at those games after tests turned up the anabolic steroid turinabol, according to Radio Free Europe.
In his place, Finnish thrower Antti Ruuskanen takes the Silver, and Veselý has been awarded the Bronze.
“It’s kind of a dream come true, albeit in a slightly different way than one would imagine,” Veselý said from Rio, as reported by iDnes.cz.
The retests also found banned substances in samples from three other Olympians in 2008 and 2012 games, all of whom have been banned from competing in the 2016 games in Rio.
The medal will give the Czech Republic a total of 11 in London games, putting the country in 19th place between with Jamaica and North Korea in the 2012 medal table.