Number of stripped medals per Olympic athletic event by gender 1984-2016

Of the 52 medals stripped from athletes relating to athletic events at the Summer Games, 36 have been taken from female athletes, while 16 were taken from males. In the women's Shot Put, six medals (two gold, silver, and bronze respectively) have been taken from female athletes, while just two were taken from male competitors.

Multiple offenders

Only a small number of athletes have been stripped of multiple medals in athletic events, and all of them have been female competitors. The most famous is the USA's Marion Jones, who was stripped of the three gold and two bronze medals she won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics; although her teammates in the relay events have kept their medals and their records still stand. The other athletes are; Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse (two silvers from the 5,000m and 10,000m in 2008), Belarus' Nadzeya Ostapchuk (two golds from the 2008 and 2012 Shot Put), and the two Russians Tatyana Chernova (two bronze in the 2008 and 2012 Heptathlon) and Tatyana Lebedeva (two silvers in the Triple Jump and Long Jump in 2008). Russian teams in the 2008 and 2012 Women's 4x400m sprint relay have also been stripped of silver medals, with the runner Tatyana Firova offending on both occasions.

Jim Thorpe

The USA's Jim Thorpe was the first athlete to be stripped of any Olympic medals, when the two golds he won in the 1912 Men's Pentathlon and Decathlon were rescinded. This took place after it came to light that Thorpe had previously played professional baseball in college, where he earned roughly two US dollars per game (many other athletes also did this, but used pseudonyms to avoid being penalized. Thorpe used his real name). This broke the IOC's strict rules relating to amateurism, although many have claimed that Thorpe's Native American ancestry was the reason that the IOC took extra measures to punish him. The medals were eventually returned to Thorpe's family in 1983, thirty years after his death; although he shares these golds with the original runners-up, and his records are not those used officially.