Jamaica’s Nesta Carter, who saw his appeal against the International Olympic Committee Disciplinary Panel (IOCDP) ruling thrown out by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), maintains his innocence.
In 2016, Carter was found guilty in a retest of his 2008 urine sample that was said to contain methylhexaneamine, and following his appeal in February 2017, CAS agreed with the IOC that he committed an anti-doping violation at the Beijing Olympics.
Carter’s club, Maximising Velocity and Power (MVP), released a statement via their Twitter account on his behalf on Thursday following the ruling that proclaimed his innocence.
“I have always been a clean athlete and I would never knowingly do anything to risk my reputation or the reputation of my country or that would cause pain to Usain (Bolt), Asafa (Powell), Michael (Frater) and the Jamaican people,” Carter said.
Carter, who will be 33 years old in October, has been on a number of gold medal-winning Jamaican 4x100m relay teams, including the 2012 Olympics, plus three World Championship teams of 2011, 2013 and 2015.
Carter also won an individual medal by capturing bronze at the 2013 Moscow World Championship in Russia.
“The substance that was in my body is now recognised as having been a contaminant in many products and as CAS accepts, it was not named on the Prohibited List in 2008 and only became known after the 2008 Olympic Games.
“Even though I must take responsibility for what has happened, it is difficult to accept that I could be in breach of the rules when, even if I had known I consumed the substance (which I did not), I could not have known at the time that the substance was prohibited,” he reiterated.
“I am deeply sorry for what has happened and the pain and loss it brings,” he added.
With the disqualification, Carter not only lost a gold medal, but and effectively reduced Usain Bolt’s perfect nine gold medals from three consecutive Olympic Games to eight.
In reacting to the CAS ruling, Bolt remained upbeat.
“…At the end of the day, the joy of winning that relay gold medal in Beijing 2008 with my teammates will last forever,” said the legend, who has retired from active competition.
Jamaica’s loss means that Caribbean neighbours Trinidad and Tobago’s team of Richard Thompson, Emmanuel Callender, Keston Bledman and Marc Burns are promoted to the gold, with Japan taking silver and Brazil, bronze.
— Howard Walker (Jamaica Observer)
