Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis handed back his Athens Olympic bronze medal Sunday after failing dope test.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the twice Olympic silver medallist from the Games and ordered him to return the bronze he had won earlier in the week.
"He has handed back the medal to the Greek Olympic team a short while ago as he was ordered to do," a weightlifting official told Reuters. It will be returned to the IOC later in the day.
Sampanis, who tested positive for high testosterone levels after finishing third in the 62 kg category on Monday, still insisted he had done nothing illegal.
"I'm going crazy, my life is destroyed, my family is destroyed," Sampanis, who won silver in the 1996 and 2000 Games, told reporters.
"I can't sleep, I can't eat for the past three days but there is no way that I have taken anything. Something is very wrong here."
His second sample test also showed an elevated testosterone level.
Sampanis's bronze medal is the first to be withdrawn at the Games and it had been the first in Athens for the host nation.
Filed by Johnny Proby
