Olympic medalist wrestler banned for 2 years over missed doping tests
Georgia’s Iakobi Kajaia, right, and Russian Olympic Committee’s Sergei Semenov grapple during a men’s 130kg Greco-Roman wrestling match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021, in Chiba, Japan. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Olympic silver medalist wrestler Iakobi Kajaia was banned for two years over missed doping control tests, the International Testing Agency said Wednesday.
Kajaia took silver for Georgia at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 in the men’s Greco-Roman 130-kilogram category. He did not compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The ITA said it filed an investigation in May last year alleging Kajaia broke so-called whereabouts rules three times in a 12-month period starting in 2023.
International athletes must specify where they can be found for one hour each day to give an unannounced doping control sample.
The agency said “the athlete could not be located based on the whereabouts information he had provided.”
The 31-year-old wrestler was banned until April 2027 and had his results in 2024 disqualified by an anti-doping tribunal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He can challenge the ruling at a CAS appeal body.
Kajaia is a two-time Olympian who placed seventh in the super-heavyweight class at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In Tokyo, he lost the gold medal bout to Mijaín López of Cuba.
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