Thanks to new technology that reveals more steroid cheats, Adam Nelson may win the 2004 Olympics shot put more than eight years after he finished second, the New York Times reported.
Nelson, now 37, climbed to first place after the original winner at the Athens Games, Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine, registered positive for performance enhancing drugs in a retest and was stripped of his medal along with three other athletes after disciplinary hearings.
Bilonog's drug of choice, the banned oxandrolone metabolite, apparently couldn't be revealed in his system through doping procedures back then. But officials were allowed to store the urine samples and reanalyze them with new technology, the paper said.
According to Associated Press, the statute of limitations for acting on Athens results expires this year. The Athens Games were already a dubious record-setter with 26 doping cases, the wire service said. Two gold winners were among six medalists who got caught back then.
Word traveled fast of Nelson's pending triumph in the track and field world. A YouTube video of Nelson's 2004 performance in Athens was headlined "2004 Olympics Men's Shot Put - 2nd - Adam Nelson." But one reader already commented, "Please change the title ... Nelson is the gold medalist."
Nelson, however, can't count on draping a gold medal around his neck just yet. Track and field’s world governing body still must decide whether to officially change the standings, or just void Bilonog's ill-gotten victory, according to the paper.