LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — A lawmaker representing Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in parliament has appealed to sport’s highest court against losing his 2008 Olympic title for doping with steroids.

Artur Taymazov filed an appeal that “seeks the annulment of the IOC decision” disqualifying him from the freestyle wrestling 120-kilogram event, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Thursday.

Representing Uzbekistan, Taymazov’s victory in Beijing in 2008 was his second gold medal in a run of three straight Olympic titles in the heaviest freestyle weight class. He also took silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Taymazov tested positive for turinabol and stanozolol in a reanalysis last year using a new test for anabolic steroids that extended the detection period from days to weeks. The IOC stores samples from the Olympics and could retest Beijing athletes up to eight years later.

Most of the more than 100 doping cases opened after retesting samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics have involved anabolic steroids used by athletes from the former Soviet Union.

Since the IOC retest, Taymazov was elected to represent North Ossetia in Russia’s Duma.

At his IOC disciplinary hearing in March, Taymazov’s lawyers suggested the positive tests were caused by contaminated supplements though did not offer any supporting evidence.

The IOC panel in its published ruling dismissed as “completely meritless” the argument that Taymazov had nothing to gain from risking a doping scandal because he was already an Olympic champion.

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