Retired Australian swimmer Brenton Rickard said a retest of a 2012 Olympic drug-testing sample returned an exceedingly small amount of a banned substance, which he unknowingly ingested, that could lead to Australia being stripped of an Olympic medal for doping for the first time, according to a report.
Rickard, a breaststroker, swam in the preliminary heats of the London Olympic men’s medley relay. Australia later took bronze in the final, just ahead of Great Britain. Relay swimmers in heats also receive medals, even if they don’t swim in the final.
Rickard, in an email to teammates, said a reanalysis of a doping sample from the London Games returned a concentration of six nanograms per milliliter of furosemide, a diuretic and masking agent, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.