Four-time Olympic cyclist positive for doping in retests of samples from 2016 Rio Olympics

Volikákis won medals for Greece in track cycling at world and European championships but not the Olympics where he was selected at each edition from Beijing in 2008 through the Tokyo Games in 2021.

FILE PHOTO: Greece’s Christos Volikakis celebrates after winning the bronze in the men’s track cycling sprint event during the European Track Cycling Championships. | Photo Credit: AP

Four-time Olympic cyclist Christos Volikákis tested positive for doping in retests of samples from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, the International Cycling Union said on Friday.

Volikákis won medals for Greece in track cycling at world and European championships but not the Olympics where he was selected at each edition from Beijing in 2008 through the Tokyo Games in 2021.

The UCI said Volikákis tested positive for the anabolic agent known as ligandrol in a sample taken on Aug. 16, 2016. In Rio he placed 12th in the keirin.

Volikákis has been provisionally suspended, the UCI said. He faces being disqualified from the Olympics and banned in a later disciplinary case by the cycling governing body.

Samples from each Olympics are stored for up to 10 years and are routinely reanalyzed as part of a program ordered by the International Olympic Committee to catch athletes still active ahead of an upcoming games.

“The reanalysis program enables further testing to be carried out based on updated information, notably thanks to investigations, or when detection methods evolve as a result of advances in scientific technology,” the UCI said.

Volikákis, now 35, is among the first positive cases from the Rio retests.