Banned Botswana runner Nijel Amos says selling ‘famous’ Olympic silver medal

Nijel Amos acknowledged he is selling Botswana’s first Olympic medal, his 800m silver from the 2012 London Games, to help assist his family after he obtained a three-year doping ban closing week.

The Athletics Integrity Unit acknowledged it banned Amos for 3 years on May 3 after an out-of-competition check out detected a banned metabolite in his urine sample. The ban was diminished from 4 years after Amos signed an admission, it added.

Amos acknowledged he signed the admission on the advice of his licensed crew.

“Given the circumstances surrounding the case, my legal team and I saw it fit to take that direction so that I get a reduction on my ban,” he added.

The drug found inside the 29-year-old’s system, GW1516, modifies how the physique metabolises fat, and the World Anti-Doping Agency has acknowledged it poses a effectively being hazard to athletes.

“At this time, my only investment or pension is the famous 2012 Olympic silver medal,” Amos suggested reporters in Botswana on Tuesday.

“I’m involved with completely totally different stakeholders, along with financial advisors, on how that will keep me and my family.

“I met with a team that wants to buy it with a value of 4.5m Botswana pulas ($339,750), but with my documentary coming out on Netflix it could change the value to 7.5 million.”

Amos’s silver on the London Games was Botswana’s first medal of any shade at an Olympics. The African nation went on to win a bronze inside the males’s 4x400m relay on the Tokyo Games in 2021.

He acknowledged he plans to return to the monitor after serving his ban, which ends in July 2025.

“I have no plans to retire,” Amos acknowledged. “I am still in good shape and I am hopeful that I will rise again in the World Championships in 2025.”