It is not the first time that two boxers have had their medals revoked – with hugely contrasting reasons.
Imane Khelif is the second Olympic boxer to have medals removed in a controversy.
At the women 66kg welterweight category at Paris 2024, Khelif won a gold medal after beating a Chinese competitor Yang Liu in the grand finale.
In the competition, doubts were cast on her gender-seriousness with her having previously flunked an unspecified test conducted by the International Boxing Association (IBA) before taking part at the World Championships which was held in 2023.
Khelif has been disqualified in the competition but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated that before Paris, she had participated in the competition with all the eligibility and entry regulations along with all What vary were, stated the IOC, the requirement that she had all medical regulations.
They also termed the test of the IBA as not legitimate and they have asked the findings to be discarded.
World Boxing, the new amateur sanctioning body of boxing that replaced the IBA after it was suspended have since sent a letter to the Algerian Boxing Association where they declare that Khelif should be subjected to genetic testing before being allowed to participate in any of their events.
Though the body later apologised naming Khelif in the letter, she is virtually out of the track until she passes the tests.
The Olympic star was brought up and born as a girl, her father has admitted in an interview with Sky sports.
However the IBA chairman, Umar Kremlev has ordered that Khelif be forced to give back her medal – even though it was within IOC regulation to be participating.
The precedence of Olympic boxers being stripped of their medals has been there, but in extremely different situations to this one.
boxer of the Russian national team, Misha Aloian, tested positive in tuaminoheptane, a prohibited stimulant, after the conclusion of the men flyweight 52kg bout in 2016.
He reached a silver medal losing to Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan but was disqualified in December that year after testing positive.
And back as far as 1905 a silver and a bronze won by the American fighter Jack Egan in the 1904 Games were taken away.
His actual name was Frank Floyd but he went under his alias when fighting at the Olympics.
It was a violation of the rules of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) back then since he formerly may have been declared a ringer – fighting with another fighter.
Even though this was more prevalent in the early 20 th century, where most wealthy individuals never wanted to be directly linked to sports, he was effectively left out of both his medal winning event in November 1905.