What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
However, after she and other members of the Bulgarian weightlifting team failed their drug tests, they were all disqualified and suspended from competing for a year.
Dong Fangxiao competed in the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, where her gymnastics team won a bronze medal for China.
However, it was later revealed that she was only 14 years old, which was considered underage to compete. Because of that, the Chinese gymnastics team was later disqualified from the games.
Izabela Dragneva is a retired Bulgarian weightlifter who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics. She won the gold medal, making her the first woman in Olympic history to win a weightlifting competition.
Jerome Young, Michael Johnson, Antonio Pettigrew, Angelo Taylor, Alvin Harrison, and Calvin Harrison competed in the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, winning gold.
After disputing the judge's ruling during a semi-final match, he won a bronze medal. However, he took it off during the ceremony, placed it on the mat, and left. The IOC then revoked his medal and banned him for life.
Andreea Răducan is a former gymnast who represented Romania at the 2000 Summer Olympics at just 16 years old. She won the gold medal for the women's all-around competition, but tested positive for a banned substance that was found in cold medicine, which was given to her by the team's physician.
Canadian Ross Rebagliati competed in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and won the gold medal in the men's giant slalom event. However, he tested positive for THC, so he was disqualified, despite THC not being a banned substance.
The Canadian Olympic Association later ruled that the IOC had no authority to take the medal away, so they had to return the medal. In response to the incident, the IOC added cannabis to the list of banned substances two months after the Games.
Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler competed in the 1964 Austria Winter Olympics as pair skaters. The German pair won the silver medal in figure skating, but because of their professional participation in the show 'Holiday on Ice' prior to the Games, they violated IOC's amateurism rules.
While they were stripped of their medals, they were later returned in 1987.
Even though Răducan was later found not guilty of doping and the physician was banned from practicing in the 2004 and 2008 Games, her medal was not reinstated.
The American sprinter earned a silver medal in the 4×100-meter relay during the 2012 Olympics in London. The following year, Gay tested positive for a banned substance. He was suspended for a year and stripped of his medal.
Days later, Team Romania filed an inquiry with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) about the validity of Team USA’s challenge. The CAS found that the US's inquiry was filed four seconds after the one-minute deadline. Following the decision, Chiles was ultimately stripped of her medal by the IOC.
Sources: (Us Weekly) (People) (BuzzFeed)
See also: The most notorious Olympic cheats (other than doping)
Jim Thorpe was a Native American athlete who competed in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics. Despite winning gold medals in both events, he played professional sports before competing, which was against the rules at the time. The IOC reinstated his medals 30 years after his death.
The legendary cyclist lost his three bronze medals from the 2000 Sydney Games following his doping scandal. The medals were revoked 13 years after the Games.
At the 2024 Olympics, Jordan Chiles initially came in fifth place before Team USA asked the judges to reexamine her score based on the difficulty of a specific leap she performed. The inquiry was granted, which upped Chiles to third place, knocking Romanian Ana Bărbosu down to fourth.
The IOC asked for his medals back after the athlete admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. It also resulted in his life-long ban from Olympic sports.
Marion Jones, a former track-and-field athlete, won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics for Team USA.
Tyler Hamilton is a former American road bicycle racer who competed in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. He won a gold medal, but a drug test came back positive. Since the athlete's backup testing sample was frozen, a doping offense couldn't be proven. Hamilton kept his medal at the time.
Later that year, Hamilton tested positive again and was suspended from the sport. In 2011, Hamilton confessed that he did use banned substances throughout his competitions and returned his gold medal.
However, in October 2007, Jones' medals were revoked after she admitted that she lied to a grand jury about never having taken performance-enhancing drugs. Not only did the IOC take back her medals and records, but she was also sentenced to six months in jail.
Ara Abrahamian is an Armenian-Swedish wrestler who competed in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Nadezhda won a gold medal but failed her drug test, resulting in her receiving a one-year ban, and her medals being stripped from both the 2012 and 2008 Games.
Nadezhda Ostapchuk is a shot-putter from Belarus who competed in the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Her coach admitted to spiking her food with a banned substance because he thought it wouldn't be in her system by the time of her drug tests.
Rick DeMont is a former American swimmer who competed in the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. At just 16 years old, he won the gold medal for the men's 400-meter freestyle. However, his asthma medication, Marax, had a prohibited substance in it. The IOC disqualified DeMont and banned him from competing in any other events.
Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall competed in the shooting portion of the pentathlon for Sweden at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. Although his team won a bronze medal, he drank prior to competing, and the team was forced to give back their medals. The 1968 Games were the first to introduce drug testing, and Liljenwall was the first to be disqualified for it.
Young committed a doping offense, so the entire team had their medals taken. But since he didn't run with the rest of the team in the finals, they got them back. Years later in 2008, Pettigrew admitted to using performance enhancers too, so the entire team was disqualified again.
It's not uncommon for Olympic athletes to have their medals taken as soon as they get them, or sometimes years later. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which oversees the games, can rescind medals, especially if athletes have violated Olympic regulations. Most of the time, athletes get their medals stripped for doping infractions. But medals have also been revoked for other reasons, like an athlete being too young and a score adjustment.
Curious? Click on for the athletes who've had their Olympic medals taken away.
Olympic athletes who had their medals revoked
US gymnast Jordan Chiles was stripped of her Olympic medal
LIFESTYLE Sports
It's not uncommon for Olympic athletes to have their medals taken as soon as they get them, or sometimes years later. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which oversees the games, can rescind medals, especially if athletes have violated Olympic regulations. Most of the time, athletes get their medals stripped for doping infractions. But medals have also been revoked for other reasons, like an athlete being too young and a score adjustment.
Curious? Click on for the athletes who've had their Olympic medals taken away.