MOSCOW -- Three Russian athletes have been disqualified from the 2012 Olympics after failing doping retests, the country's track federation said.
Hammer throwers Maria Bespalova and Gulfiya Khanafeeva, and triple jumper Viktoria Valyukevich were all disqualified. None of them were medallists .
The disqualifications of Bespalova and Khanafeeva mean all three Russian women who competed in the hammer throw in 2012 have tested positive for doping. Tatyana Lysenko was the original winner, but was stripped of her gold medal in October.
Valyukevich was eighth in the triple jump in 2012 and finished two places ahead of Russian teammate Tatyana Lebedeva, who has been stripped of two medals from the 2008 Beijing Games for doping.
In Tuesday's statement, Russian officials didn't say which substances were involved. The International Olympic Committee had no immediate comment.
It is the third time Khanafeeva has been found guilty of a doping offence. She previously served bans in 2002 for a positive test and in 2008 for providing someone else's urine in a drug test sample.
Bespalova is currently serving a four-year ban after testing positive for a banned steroid in 2015.
Since the IOC started retesting samples from the 2008 and 2012 Games last year, more than 30 Russians in various sports have tested positive. That makes them the largest group out of more than 100 positive tests. Seven more Russians have been disqualified for other doping offences.
Russia has lost 26 Olympic medals as a result, most of them in track and field. Many of the cases involve turinabol, a substance which former Moscow anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov has admitted supplying to athletes in a steroid cocktail.
