Super-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤120 kg), Men

The last three World Championships had been won by Cuba’s Mijaín López (2005 / 2007) and Russian Khasan Baroyev (2006), who was also the defending Olympic Champion. As expected they met in the final in Beijing, with López winning the gold medal in straight periods. López would return to defend his gold medal at London in 2012, and also won the Worlds in 2009-10, and in 2011 would win his third straight gold medal at the Pan American Games. The bronze medals went to Lithuania’s Mindaugas Mizgaitis and Armenia’s Yury Patrikeyev. Patrikeyev was actually Russian and had been 2002 and 2004 European Champion, but was bypassed for the 2004 Olympics in favor of Baroyev, so Patrikeyev left the Russian team and started competing for Armenia in 2005.

That was how the event and the results seemed to have ended. In 2015, however, the IOC began re-testing samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, using newer, more advanced testing techniques, in an effort to find those who had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but in whom it could not be detected at the time of those Olympics. This was one of the many events affected.

In November 2016, Khasan Baroyev (RUS) was revealed to have a positive test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone), and was disqualified, losing his silver medal. Mindaugas Mizgaitis of Lithuania was advanced to the silver medal, and Yannick Szczepaniak of France was advanced to the bronze medal.