Nesta Carter appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after his failed doping retest caused the Jamaican 2008 Olympic 4x100m relay team, including Usain Bolt, to be stripped of their gold medals.
Carter’s attorney confirmed a Reuters report that Carter filed an appeal with the court.
On Jan. 25, it was announced that Carter was disqualified from the Beijing Games after retests of his 2008 doping samples came back positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.
In accordance with doping rules, that meant the entire Jamaican relay team was stripped of its medals, since Carter was part of the quartet. It brought Bolt’s Olympic gold-medal tally down from nine to eight, one shy of the track and field record shared by Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi.
The stimulant methylhexaneamine was not named on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substances list in 2008 (it is now), but, according to the IOC:
Methylhexaneamine fell within the scope of the general prohibition of stimulants having a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect as the listed stimulants. Under the then applicable system, stimulants which were not expressly listed, were presumed to be Non-Specified Prohibited Substances.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) has confirmed that the presence or use of substances falling within the scope of generic definitions of the Prohibited List, can be used as a basis of establishing anti-doping rules violations.
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