Olympic Games: Four 2004 Athens Olympic medallists, including Ukraine's shot put champion Yuriy Bilonog, have been stripped of their medals after re-tested samples from eight years ago were positive, the IOC said yesterday.

The other athletes are women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia, discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus, who both won bronze medals in their disciplines and Belarussian hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan who lost his silver medal. A case involving a fifth unnamed athlete is still pending. All four had tested positive for anabolic steroids when some 100 samples from the Games eight years ago were retested.