Koji Murofushi could be awarded bronze medal
It was a huge disappointment to many fans in Japan when hammer thrower Koji Murofushi, winner of a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, failed to come home with any medals from Beijing. Those same fans will probably be happy to find out that a doping scandal may give Murofushi a bronze:
Belarusian athletes Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan, who won silver and bronze respectively in Beijing last month, are believed to have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Murofushi, who finished in fifth place, will be awarded bronze if both medalists are disqualified and stripped of their medals.
If he is awarded a medal, it will be deja vu for Murofushi.
The hammer thrower was awarded gold at the Athens Olympics after Hungarian gold medalist Adrian Annus, who allegedly switched his urine sample, refused to be retested and was stripped of his medal.
[Interesting side note: Koji Murofushi has something very rare in Japan - a middle name! His full name is Koji Alexander Murofushi (室伏 アレクサンダー 広治). I'm guessing that his mother, a javelin thrower from Romania, picked the middle name, while his hammer throwing Japanese father picked his first name.]
