The Polish press reported on Tuesday (9th August) that weightlifter Tomasz Zielinski has been removed from Olympic competition in Rio de Janeiro after testing positive for nandrolone.

SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Tomasz Zielinski, weightlifter:

"For me it is like a nightmare. I cannot explain this. I think this is something like a malpractice. I have no words. For ten years I have been training for our country. For 20 years I sacrificed everything for this sport and I have never doped."

SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Tomasz Zielinski, weightlifter:

"Before I came to Rio I had three doping controls and everything was okay. After one hour, when I arrived at the Olympic village, they took me to the control and that surprised me a lot. And then suddenly it turns out that I am doping."

SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Tomasz Zielinski, weightlifter:

"A professor from Germany, who came especially to check the B sample, said that is highly unlikely I was taking nandrolone because it persists in the body for a year-and-a-half. How do you explain it? I am not so stupid as to take nandrolone before the Olympic Games, when I have the chance to win a medal."

SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Tomasz Zielinski, weightlifter:

"This is the steroid from the Middle Ages, in short. This is not a derivative. In theory this was clean nandrolone. It is sick. I do not even know where and from whom I should buy this."

SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Tomasz Zielinski, weightlifter:

"I appealed to the court. I am an athlete, they cannot throw me out, because I am fighting. I will fight because I consider myself innocent."