Thomas Barr, who narrowly missed out on an Olympic 400m hurdles medal, says “it’s not unlikely” that his position could be upgraded in the future.
The Waterford runner finished fourth in the final in Rio, missing out on a podium place by just five hundredths of a second.
Kerron Clement took gold for the USA with Boniface Mucheru Tumuti taking silver for Kenya, while Turkey's Yasmani Copello was the man who pipped Barr for that final place on the podium.
Race walker Olive Loughnane recently received her gold medal after being upgraded to first position from the 20km race at the 2009 World Championship after Russian Olga Kaninska’s competition results were annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport .
Similarly, Rob Heffernan now has a bronze medal from London 2012 to his name after Sergey Kirdyapkin, also from Russia, was disqualified for doping four years after the Games.
“The way things are going it’s not unlikely,” Barr told RTÉ’s Late Late Show when asked if he would might get a medal in the post in a couple of years' time.
“If it happens it happens, it would almost be like a hollow victory because you miss out on coming over the line and seeing your name [on the board], in the third position or the second position or whatever.
“So there’s part of me that nearly wishes I finished fifth or sixth or further down because it’s less of a possibility.
“To have a medal would be unbelievable. If it happens it happens.”
"I don't think sport is ever going to be completely clean" @TomBarr247 on why he may end up with a medal #latelate https://t.co/ZtA5EYAkeb
— RTE One (@RTEOne) September 9, 2016
The Rio Olympics will be remembered for as many off-track incidents as sporting ones and the 24-year-old reckons that the complete elimination of performance-enhancing drugs is unrealistic.
He added: “There was so much controversy. I don’t think sport is ever going to be completely clean.
“Anti-doping is so far behind doping. I don’t think it’ll ever be clean but at the same time all that we can do is go out and race whatever is in front of us.
“There is part of me that thinks, ‘Right, there was three guys ahead of me but how many behind me could have been on drugs?’ Just wait and see.”
Barr also confirmed that the Toyko Games in 2020 is “firmly in the plans.”
