Two athletes positive for steroids in London 2012 retests - IOC

FILE PHOTO: Athletics - World Athletics Championships – women’s long jump victory ceremony – London Stadium, London, Britain – August 6, 2017 – Ineta Radevica of Latvia is promoted from Bronze to Silver in the Long Jump discipline from Daegu 2011 REUTERS/Phil Noble

BERLIN (Reuters) - Two athletes who competed in the London 2012 Olympics tested positive for anabolic steroids following retests of their seven-year-old samples, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

Armenian weightlifter Meline Daluzyan, who competed in the women's 69kg event, tested positive for steroid turinabol while Latvian long jumber Ineta Radevica, who finished fourth, found to have used another steroid, oxandrolone.

Both athletes, who have retired, face doping bans from their respective federations for the use of prohibited substances.

FILE PHOTO: Armenia's Meline Daluzyan competes on the women's 69Kg Group A weightlifting competition at the ExCel venue at the London 2012 Olympic Games August 1, 2012. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor

The IOC stores and regularly re-tests samples from past Games with methods that did not exist at the time or looking for substances that were not known, as part of what it says are efforts to protect clean athletes and the integrity of the competition.

Samples since the 2004 Athens Olympic Games have been stored and reanalysed systematically.

More than 110 adverse findings have been found in Olympics since 2004 through re-testing of samples, including dozens from the London Games.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Christian Radnedge)