THE first competitor to be stripped off his medal yesterday lost a bronze not because of drugs but due to his high dudgeon at losing.
The International Olympic Committee announced yesterday that Swedish greco-roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian had been
ordered to forfeit his bronze medal in the 84-kg category after he threw it down on the mat in protest at the refereeing of his semi-final bout. In addition, Abrahamian has been expelled from the athletes' village and stripped of his Olympic accreditation.
During the wrestling medal ceremony on Thursday, Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck after beating Melonin Noumonvi of France, stepped from the podium, dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat and then walked off.
Earlier, the Swedish wrestler, a silver medallist in Athens, had to be restrained by team-mates when a row erupted with judges over the semi-final decision which was awarded to Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on the take gold.
Abrahamian shouted at the referee and judges then went over to their seats to speak to them up close. He angrily threw off the restraining arm of a team official then turned and left.
Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the arena, and Swedish wrestling team coach Leo Myllari said at the time: "It's all politics."
Later at the medal ceremony, Abrahamian contemptuously threw away his medal and told reporters: "I don't care about this medal. I wanted gold."
The IOC immediately ordered an inquiry into the incidents, and yesterday disqualified the athlete, who has already announced his retirement saying: "This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure." The IOC have decided that no athlete would be upgraded to take his bronze medal.
In a statement, the IOC said Abrahamian's action went against the spirit of fair play, insulted his fellow competitors and constituted a demonstration, which is banned inside Olympic venues.
The IOC ordered the Swedish Olympic Committee to enforce the decision which meant Abrahamian would have no access to any Olympic venues or the athletes' village, and it also ordered the wrestling federation to take any further action as it saw fit.
"The awards ceremony is a highly symbolic ritual," said the IOC. "Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medallist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic Movement. It is also contrary to the spirit of fair play.
"It should be noted that, in front of the disciplinary commission, the athlete never expressed any regret, nor did he offer any apology for his actions," the IOC said.
There was no response from Abrahamian or the Swedish wrestling and Olympic officials to the decision.
TennisSwitzerland's outgoing world number one Roger Federer claimed the Olympic gold medal he has always wanted when he partnered Stanislas Wawrinka to victory over Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in the men's doubles final.
Federer and Wawrinka took a thrilling match 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 in the late night final in Beijing. Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States took bronze, beating French pair Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 3-6 6-3 6-4.
Not known for his doubles expertise, Federer's groundstrokes combined with Wawrinka's backhand skills to give the Swiss pair a deserved victory, though they were made to struggle at times.
They took the first set comfortably and took a 3-1 lead with a service break in the second, before setting themselves up for a straight sets win by winning the set 6-4.
But it was not to be an easy night, and Wawrinka's serve often let the Swiss pair down, while Federer was not always looking happy, especially when his service was broken in the first game of the third set after a couple of poor shots. The Swedes failed to take their chance immediately, however, and three double-faults by Aspelin gave Federer and Wawrinka the chance to take the fourth set to a tie-break, only for Johansson and Aspelin to win and take the match to a fourth set.
But Federer was instrumental in breaking the Aspelin serve in his first service game of the fourth set, and the multiple Grand Slam winner eventually served out to seal the match and the gold medal.
Americans Venus and Serena Williams won the battle of the sisters on Saturday, beating Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine to reach their second Olympic doubles final. They will meet French Open champions Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, who beat Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
Earlier, Serbia's Novak Djokovic won the first medal of the Olympic tennis tournament, beating Federer's American conqueror James Blake 6-3, 7-6, to go home with bronze.
Before the matches on Saturday, the Chinese state media appealed to fans to stop cheering inappropriately at tennis matches, urging them to present a good image to the world.
Enthusiastic Chinese fans have often clapped at wrong moments during Olympics tennis matches, including during rallies, breaking with the usual etiquette with which tennis is watched.
Some players have said it was affecting their concentration, and the official Xinhua news agency called for it to stop.
"As everyone knows, tennis is an elegant sport, and it brings with it many requirements for spectators in terms of manners," Xinhua said in a commentary.
It went on to explain how sudden applause or noise could affect athletes' concentration in sports such as tennis and gymnastics, potentially affecting their chances of winning a medal. Ultimately, Xinhua said, spectators' behaviour was a reflection of the country's level of civilisation.
"Spectator friends, you can only start from yourselves," Xinhua said. "Supporting the Olympics with a cool head is the only way to make your support reasonable."
Boxing BRITAIN'S James Degale set up a middleweight quarter-final bout with defending Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev after a win over American Shawn Estrada.
Degale won and an untidy and often scrappy bout by 11-5, and will now face the Kazakhstan fighter on Wednesday with at least a bronze at stake. Degale will need to raise his game considerably to beat the brilliant Artayev who ousted gold medal favourite Matvey Korobov of Russia.
Korobov, a double world champion widely regarded as one of the finest pound-for-pound amateurs, had not lost for five years but struggled against an opponent making the most of his advantage in height and reach.
Ireland's Darren Sutherland is also in the last eight after a thrilling fourth-round stoppage of Algerian Nabil Kassel.
Starting the fourth round one point ahead, Sutherland briefly saw his lead wiped out but responded by pouring forward, re-establishing his advantage and decking Kassel with another big right.
The groggy Algerian gamely got to his feet but the fight was as good as over and when another right hand forced Kassel to take a third standing count with seconds remaining, the referee intervened.
Light flyweight Paddy Barnes, from Belfast but fighting for Ireland, also progressed with a 14-8 win over Jose Luis Meza of Ecuador.
