ATHENS, Aug 24 (AFP) - Hungarian discus thrower Robert Fazekas plunged the Olympic Games into another drugs crisis on Tuesday when he became the second gold medallist in three days to face losing his title for a doping offence.
The 29-year-old European champion and world championship silver medallist was caught trying to swap his urine sample after throwing 70.93 metres in Monday's final to secure victory, an IOC source told AFP.
The revelation came just one day after Russian women's shot put winner Irina Korzhanenko had her gold taken away and was thrown out of the games after testing positive for banned steroid stanozolol.
It is the first time in the Games history that two track and field champions have been stripped of their gold medals for breaking doping rules.
Canada's Ben Johnson was the only previous case after his infamous stanozolol-charged 100m win at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Fazekas's gold will now be awarded to Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna, the Sydney Olympics champion.
Belarus high jumper Aleksey Lesnichiy, who failed to make the final, is also to be thrown out of the Games after testing positive for clenbuterol, a banned steroid, taking the total number to test failures to 16 since the Olympics started.
Korzhanenko, who was stripped of her world indoor title in 1999 for a doping offence, lifted the shot put title last Wednesday in an event staged on the historic site of Olympia, the ancient birthplace of the games.
Another shot putter, Uzbekistan's Olga Shchukina, had already failed a drugs test following last week's competition.
A further nine weightlifters, two Greek baseball players and a Kenyan boxer have failed drug tests since the IOC began its sweep on July 30.
Two more athletes, Greek sprint stars Kostadinos Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou pulled out of the showpiece after failing to take drugs tests on the eve of the Olympics.
The roll-call of shamed athletes has left Athens in danger of becoming remembered as the dirtiest Olympics in history, something officials had warned was a possibility before the games began.
With IOC President Jacques Rogge declaring a zero tolerance policy to drugs cheats, the 2004 games have seen a sharp increase in the number of anti-doping controls and ever more sophisticated testing procedures in place.
The worst-hit sport has been weightlifting, which saw Greece's Leonidas Sampanis stripped of his bronze medal and kicked out of the games Sunday after confirmation of his failed drug test.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) tested all 260 entrants for the Olympics before competition began in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the scandal that marred the Sydney 2000 games, when three Bulgarians failed tests.
Sampanis, who was acclaimed as a hero after winning the first medal of the games for hosts Greece, was booted out after twice the legal limit of testosterone was found in his sample.
His expulsion from the Games was a bitter blow to Greek pride that had been left battered and bruised by the scandal surrounding Kenteris and Thanou.