Four horses have been banned from competing in yesterday’s Olympic Games jumping competition for doping, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said.
The horses — representing Brazil, Germany, Ireland and Norway — had been suspended after testing positive for a prohibited substance, the FEI, which controls the sport, said in a statement.
The four banned riders are Bernardo Alves of Brazil and his horse Chupa Chup; Germany’s Christian Ahlmann and Coster; Ireland’s Denis Lynch and Latinus; and Norway’s Tony Andre Hansen and Camiro.
The announcement throws into doubt the medal order of the team jumping competition earlier in the week, in which Norway won a bronze medal, its first ever placing in an Olympics equestrian event.
The US won the gold and Canada the silver.
McLin could not confirm when an announcement would be made on whether Norway would have to relinquish its medal.
If the team bronze is taken away from Norway, Switzerland will take third place.
The FEI’s secretary-general Alexander McLin told reporters Will Simpson of the US would not start in the individual final because the US had three other riders competing, the limit according to FEI rules.
In its statement, the FEI said the four horses had been “provisionally suspended by the FEI further to doping/medication control tests that indicated the present of capsaicin in each horse.”
The substance is a derivative of the chili pepper plant and has always been banned, but only recently has a test been developed to detect it, said Paul Farrington, associate member of the FEI’s veterinarian committee.
Its use seems to be like a chemical form of rapping, an illegal activity in which horses’ forelegs are hit to bruise them, so they will avoid knocking the fences.
One horse from each medal-winning team had been tested for banned substances, Farrington said.
McLin said the B tests for the positive horses would be completed in coming days, but not soon enough for any of the riders to compete in the final.
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Polish partner Jan Zielinski on Saturday survived a tough 90-minute round-of-16 match to advance to the mixed doubles quarter-finals of the US Open and stay in contention for a third Grand Slam title, while Jannik Sinner stormed into the last 16 as fellow world No. 1 Iga Swiatek stayed on course for a second New York triumph. Seventh seeds and Australian Open winners Hsieh and Zielinksi took 1 hour, 29 minutes to beat Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos and Santiago Gonzalez 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 10-6. Hsieh, 38, and Zielinski, 27, are eyeing their third Grand Slam title this year, after
HOMETOWN HERO: The Taichung Sports Bureau said it would award Lin NT$600,000 plus a NT$50,000 appearance award for her performance in Paris Taiwan’s Lin Tzu-yu and Tian Shiau-wen late on Saturday won the silver medal in the table tennis women’s doubles WD20 class at the Paris Paralympics, winning Taiwan’s second medal of this year’s games. The top-seeded duo missed the gold, losing to Australia’s Lei Li Na and Yang Qian in the 29-minute final in South Paris Arena 4. Lin and Tian struggled to adjust early in the match, losing the first two games 7-11 and 6-11. Although they fought back to win the third game 11-3 and took the lead in the fourth game, they were unable to take advantage of their game point