The Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk has been stripped of her gold medal after the IOC says she failed a doping test. Photograph: Diegi Azubel/EPA
The Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk has been stripped of her Olympic gold medal after failing a doping test. New Zealand's Valerie Adams will be awarded the gold, Russia's Evgeniia Kolodko will take the silver and China's Lijiao Gong will win the bronze.
Ostapchuk was tested twice, once on 5 August and again the following day after she had finished first. The IOC said both samples indicated the presence of metenolone, which is classified as an anabolic agent.
Ostapchuk, 31, was competing in her third Olympic Games at London 2012.She finished fourth in Athens in 2004 and claimed bronze in Beijing four years ago. She threw 21.36m with her third attempt to comfortably beat Adams, who threw 20.70.
Adams said: "I am speechless with this news. It is taking me some time to take this in. It is also encouraging for those athletes like myself, who are proud to compete cleanly, that the system works and doping cheats are caught."
The announcement that Ostapchuk had failed her tests came after the IOC president Jacques Rogge had proclaimed the fight against doping at London 2012 a success.
Belarus had already sent home the hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhanbecause of suspicions over a sample provided after his silver-medal performance at the 2004 Athens Games.
Besides Ostapchuk, only one athlete tested positive for a banned substance after competing. The USA judo fighter Nick Delpopolo was cited for traces of marijuana in his urine sample. He blamed "inadvertent consumption" of food baked with the substance. The IOC disqualified him from seventh place in the 73kg class.
Seven more were caught in doping controls conducted since the official testing period for the games began on 16 July. One of the seven competed in London before her test result was known.
"I think that is a sign that the system works," Rogge said on Sunday. "I am happy about the fact that we could catch athletes who cheated, both before the Games and at the Games."
The IOC had said this would be its most extensive Olympic anti-doping programme. It took almost 6,000 urine and blood samples, including no-notice tests ahead of athletes competing. Rogge cautioned that some samples are still being analysed and "we might hear something tomorrow or the day after. Hopefully not, but you never know".
The Syria runner Ghfran Almouhamad tested positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine two days before her 400m hurdles heat. She finished eighth and was eliminated before the IOC disqualified her.
Until this latest turn of events, London 2012 was set to end with medal standings in all 302 events unaltered by doping scandals.
Three Beijing events were tainted during the Games, and two more medals were changed months later when a new test for the blood-booster Cera was introduced. The signature men's 1500m gold medal was stripped from Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain.
Rogge said that the IOC will store all samples from London and can reanalyse them, revise results and reallocate medals until the statute of limitations expires in August 2020.
"When there are no new tests, we wait until the last moment; if there is a breakthrough new test, we'll test immediately," he said.
Indeed, the next Olympic doping scandal could be from the 2004 Athens Games. Next week the IOC could announce up to five new disciplinary cases based on retested sample
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