If Olympic gold medal upgrade does happen, will not turn it down: Yogeshwar Dutt

There seems to be no end to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) re-testing saga with several grapplers from the 2012 London Olympics being allegedly questioned over their legitimacy. India’s Yogeshwar Dutt has found himself as an unlikely winner, with sources suggesting that both the gold medal winner, Toghrul Asgarov and silver medallist late Besit Kudukhov’s samples have tested positive for banned substances. However, according to United World Wrestling (UWW) rules, the medal could also be handed to the other bronze medallist America’s Coleman Scott.

Last week, Yogeshwar publicly relinquished his willingness to be awarded the silver medal requesting the International Olympic Council to handover the medal to Kudukhov’s family, after he passed away in a car accident in 2013. That being said, the 33-year old has made it clear that he is more than ready to accept the gold medal this time. He said, “Being honest, I only read about this particular development on social media and wasn’t aware of it. I didn’t even try to look into it, if it happens it happens. If they do give me the gold, I will not say no, because I was higher ranked than the American wrestler at that time. So, there is no reason for me to say no, but we also have to look into the fact that, there is absolutely no confirmation of this yet. So making presumptions doesn’t really matter.”

He added, “I also wrestled more bouts than him, but there is no clarity, they might even take the fact that he lost to Asgarov into consideration. I’m not very sure of the rules. Besit was very close to me on the circuit, and I have met his family as well. So if I get a silver upgrade I will not take it, if it’s gold I will take it. But, I don’t want to think about it as I live in the present and don’t like to assume much.”

WADA is currently re-testing samples of every wrestler who participated in the 60 kg category, including Yogeshwar’s. According to sources close to Sportskeeda, the samples will be re-tested once more before a final verdict is forwarded to the IOC.