IOC sanctions Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku for failing anti-doping test

LONDON, July 29 – The first official doping ban during the London Olympics was handed down Saturday as the International Olympic Committee threw out Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku from the Games.
The IOC said Pulaku tested positive for a banned steroid, stanozolol, on July 23, and that a backup “B” sample confirmed the result.
The announcement came a day after Albania dropped the 19-year-old from its weightlifting team over doping suspicions. He was supposed to have competed in the 77-kilogram category.
Pulaku was tested in London, had his accreditation taken away and was kicked out of the athletes village, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
The lifter’s coach and uncle, Sami Pulaku, “explained that neither he nor the athlete understood how such substance ended up in the body of the athlete,” the IOC said.
Stanozolol is the same steroid for which Greece’s world indoor high jump champion Dimitris Chondrokoukis tested positive, leading him to withdraw from the Games on Thursday – and was also taken bydisgraced sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Pulaku has not contacted federation authorities back home, who have said they will likely ask prosecutors to investigate how he has taken that steroid.