Afghanistan Judoka Positive for Steroid in 3rd Doping Case at Olympics

Spectators cheer holding French flags ahead of the men's +100 kg final match in the team judo competition, as they watch from a fan zone set up at the Club France, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Spectators cheer holding French flags ahead of the men's +100 kg final match in the team judo competition, as they watch from a fan zone set up at the Club France, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
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Afghanistan Judoka Positive for Steroid in 3rd Doping Case at Olympics

Spectators cheer holding French flags ahead of the men's +100 kg final match in the team judo competition, as they watch from a fan zone set up at the Club France, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Spectators cheer holding French flags ahead of the men's +100 kg final match in the team judo competition, as they watch from a fan zone set up at the Club France, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A judoka from Afghanistan tested positive at the Paris Olympics for the anabolic steroid that sprinter Ben Johnson used at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Mohammad Samim Faizad gave a sample at his opening bout that tested positive for stanozolol, the International Testing Agency said Saturday. It was the third failed drug test at the Paris Games.

He lost his only bout in the men’s 81-kilogram class to Wachid Borchashvili of Austria on Tuesday.

Faizad turns 22 during the Olympics, from which he has been removed. He was the only athlete based in Afghanistan on its team of three men and three women in Paris.



Fire at Winter Resort Hotel in Türkiye Kills Olympic Skier and his Father

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Enes Ozkan/IHA via AP)
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Enes Ozkan/IHA via AP)
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Fire at Winter Resort Hotel in Türkiye Kills Olympic Skier and his Father

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Enes Ozkan/IHA via AP)
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Enes Ozkan/IHA via AP)

A fire at a closed ski resort hotel in northwest Türkiye killed an Olympic skier and his father Thursday, two months after a blaze at another Turkish winter resort left 79 dead.
The victims were named as Yahya Usta, president of the Turkish Ski and Snowboard Teachers Association, and his 25-year-old son Berkin, a skier who represented Türkiye at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Yahya Usta, his son and wife were staying on the hotel's fifth floor.
The Kervansaray Hotel in Uludag, Bursa province, was empty of guests when the fire started at 5:30 a.m. but 12 staff were present, Bursa governor’s office said. Several people suffering smoke inhalation were hospitalized.
The 30-year-old hotel was shut down in early January when its accommodation permit was cancelled, the governor's office added, according to The Associated Press.
TV images showed flames quickly engulfing the six-story hotel, located on the slopes of one of Türkiye’s most popular ski destinations, less than a three-hour drive from Istanbul.
Fire crews brought the blaze under control within two hours but not before the upper floors had been gutted.
Bursa Mayor Mustafa Bozbey said the fire began in the cafeteria.
“I learned with deep sorrow that our national athlete Berkin Usta and his father Yahya Usta lost their lives in the fire that broke out in the hotel in Uludag.” Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak said.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the Bursa fire.
In January a 12-story ski resort hotel in northwestern Türkiye went up in flames during a school holiday, killing 79.
That fire, at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu province’s Koroglu mountains, also started in the hotel's dining area.
The state-run Anadolu news agency on Wednesday reported fresh arrests relating to the Bolu fire, taking the number of people in detention awaiting trial to 28.