Vitaliy Rahimov Baroev was silver medalist at 120 kilograms/264 pounds, while Rahimov won silver at 60 kilograms/132 pounds. Mambetov received a bronze medal at 96 kilograms/211 pounds, all in Greco competition at the Beijing Games.
Baroev, now 33, and Rahimov, 32, tested positive for the banned substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol). Mambetov, 34, tested positive for the prohibited substance stanozolol.
United World Wrestling has yet to announce how these IOC actions might change the standings -- and possible medal awards -- for Greco wrestlers in the affected weight classes. However, no U.S. wrestlers are expected to have their medal status change because of these wrestlers being forced to give up their medals. At 96 kilograms, Adam Wheeler won a bronze medal and was on the opposite side of the bracket from Mambetov, according to USA Wrestling. At 120 kilograms, Dremiel Byers placed seventh at his weight class and was on the opposite side of the bracket from Baroev. Team USA did not have an entry in Greco-Roman competition at 60 kilograms.
At least one of the Greco-Roman wrestlers stripped of his 2008 Olympic medal plans to fight the IOC decision.
Baroev originally told the Russian news agency Tass he would not go to court to keep his silver medal awarded in Beijing. However, Baroev -- who also won a gold medal in Greco at the 2004 Athens Olympics -- later said, "I have changed my mind, I will fight for myself and for my medal, and I will go to court."
These three Greco medalists aren't the first to be disqualified for doping nearly a decade after the fact.
In October, two men's freestyle wrestlers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- Uzbekistan's Soslan Tigiev, and Kazakhstan's Taimuraz Tigiyev -- were stripped of their silver medals after recent retesting indicated doping had taken place eight years ago.
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