The nine-year wait ended as Adam Nelson '97 was finally awarded the Olympic gold medal in the shot put from the 2004 Athens Games.
Nelson was bumped up to gold after former gold medalist Yuriy Bilonog, of Ukraine, was disqualified for doping in December after a reanalyzed sample tested positive for oxandrolone.
Officials may store samples for up to eight years and retest them for substances that may not have been initially detectable. Officials reexamined around 100 samples from the Athens Games and stripped medals from five athletes, including Bilonog.
The US Olympic Committee received the medal to present to Nelson after officials from track and field's international governing body decided to officially alter the event's standings to remove athletes found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs.
In 2004, Bilonog and Nelson tied for their best attempts of 21.16 meters in the final round of competition. Bilonog was awarded the gold on the strength of his second-best throw of 21.15 meters, which beat Nelson's.
Nelson, who currently lives in Athens, Ga., was a silver medalist at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and competed in the 2008 Games in Beijing.
