Russian Aleksey Lovchev, the world’s strongest man via his 2015 World Championships super heavyweight title, has been banned four years after failing a drug test at those Worlds in November, according to multiple reports.
Lovchev, 26, plans to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for sport, citing laboratory error, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Lovchev, who broke clean-and-jerk and total world records at Worlds, was provisionally suspended in December due to the failed drug test.
In December, Russia sports minister Vitaly Mutko had a different explanation for Lovchev’s failed test, saying the banned growth-hormone substance was in a medicine he had been cleared to use, according to The Associated Press.
