2 Olympic medalists failed drug tests

Add the Beijing Games to that growing list of Olympics where winners and losers are still being sorted out long after the torch goes dark.

The reason is familiar: doping.

This time, the International Olympic Committee caught six athletes after retesting their Beijing blood samples for CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting hormone EPO.

Among those caught were 1,500-meter gold medalist Rashi Ramzi of Bahrain and cycling silver medalist Davide Rebellin of Italy, their national Olympic committees said Wednesday. The German cycling federation said Stefan Schumacher had also tested positive for CERA.

Ramzi is the first Beijing gold medalist caught for performance-enhancing drugs.

A person familiar with the results told The Associated Press that three track and field athletes, two cyclists and one weightlifter had tested positive. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the names haven't been released by the IOC.

The International Association of Athletics Federations said it had been notified of three cases in track and field, but declined to give any names because they were confidential.

It appears no Americans will get caught up in the CERA retests.

Once all the names come out, the appeals are over and final judgment is handed down, it's a good bet there will be redistribution of some medals. Olympic fans should be used to that by now. The Sydney Games have been over for almost a decade, and medals involving teammates of Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery are still in limbo.

The World Anti-Doping Agency welcomed the IOC findings. Under the WADA code, athletes can be disciplined up to eight years from the date of a doping violation.

"We suggest that athletes who may be tempted to cheat keep this reality in mind," WADA president John Fahey said. "We believe that retrospective testing serves as a strong deterrent."

U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation had not received notification from the IOC of any adverse findings involving a U.S. athlete.

"Unless we hear otherwise, we are treating no news as good news," Seibel said.

The IOC reanalyzed a total of 948 samples from Beijing after new lab tests for CERA and insulin became available following the Olympics. The testing began in January and focused mainly on endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.

"The further analysis of the Beijing samples that we conducted should send a clear message that cheats can never assume that they have avoided detection," said Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC medical commission.

Ramzi gave Bahrain its first ever Olympic track and field gold medal when he finished the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 32.94 seconds at the Bird's Nest in Beijing.

The Bahrain Olympic Committee said Ramzi's "A'' sample was opened Feb. 19 and tested positive. The committee said his backup "B'' sample will be tested in France on June 8 and that he will face an IOC hearing the same day. If he is stripped of his medal, Asbel Kipruto Kiprop of Kenya stands to be upgraded from silver to gold.

The Italian Olympic Committee said in a statement that it had suspended Rebellin, who last week won the Walloon Arrow cycling classic in Belgium for the third time, and that anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has opened an investigation.

In an interview with an Italian daily, Rebellin rejected the doping accusations, saying the result was "certainly a mistake."

"I don't see why I should take a path that would ruin me or my image," Rebellin told Italy's state TV on Wednesday. "I don't know if I'll still be able to race, but I will always ride because cycling is my life."

Schumacher already had been banned for two years by the International Cycling Union after French authorities announced they had found traces of CERA in blood samples taken before and during last year's Tour de France, where he won two individual time trial stages and wore the yellow jersey for two days as race leader.

"You can only gulp when you hear this," said Michael Lehner, Schumacher's lawyer.

Coaches, athletes and anti-doping organizations welcomed the announcement that six more athletes had been caught, saying it helps restore credibility to Olympic sports.

"I'm in favor of anything they're doing to clean up the sport," said Glen Mills, coach of Jamaican gold-medal sprinter Usain Bolt, who set world records in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100 relay.

Bolt "has not heard anything -- and he will not hear anything," Mills said.

The IOC will wait for word from the national Olympic bodies before holding any disciplinary hearings. Athletes found guilty of doping face being disqualified from the Olympics and stripped of any medals they won. Jones had her five medals from 2000 stripped in 2007 and other Americans have faced the same fate more recently.

Lauryn Williams, a member of the U.S. track and field team in Beijing and a 2004 silver medalist in the 100 meters, backed the testing system.

"To go ahead and weed out the cheaters is a good thing," she said. "To find out there are additional cheaters is not a great thing."

A Greek race walker, Athanasia Tsoumeleka, announced in January that she had tested positive in the new Beijing checks. Tsoumeleka, who finished ninth in Beijing in the 20K walk, was charged by a Greek prosecutor earlier this month with using banned drugs.

The IOC previously disqualified nine athletes for doping at the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. In addition, there were six doping cases involving horses in the equestrian competition.

The IOC has already stripped four athletes of Beijing medals -- Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska (silver), Belarusian hammer throwers Vadim Devyatovskiy (silver) and Ivan Tsikhan (bronze) and North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su (silver and bronze).