James Magnussen has slammed suggestions that his relay bronze medal should be stripped due to the bombshell positive test of former Aussie Olympics teammate Brenton Rickard.
Six Australian swimmers are at risk of losing their medals following a positive drug test from the 2012 London Olympics. Rickard tested positive to diuretic Furosemide, a banned masking agent, following a re-screening from a sample he gave eight years ago. The dual Olympian was a member of the Australian men's 4 x 100 metre medley team that won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and now it's reported that the International Olympic Committee is looking to disqualify the results from the Games.
Former Olympian Magnussen said he was stunned to learn from Rickard about the eight-year-old test result.
"We've got some pretty high-profile names from that Olympic Games that have since been banned from the sport for doping that have won multiple medals so, the only thing I was shocked about was it was Brenton calling me and saying that they'd tested his sample eight years later," Magnussen told Nine News.
"It seemed completely random.
"He strongly denies any wrongdoing. From what he conveyed to me he believes it was something from a prescription medicine he was given."
Magnussen argued that it would be unfair to strip the whole team of their relay medals at the London Games when Rickard was not in the final, only the heats.
Rickard still received a bronze medal as part of the team, but he did not feature in the final which earned them the Olympic hardware.
"Brenton wasn't actually in that final of the men's 4 x 100 relay race so it didn't really have a bearing on the result and to me it seems kind of a long bow to draw to talk about taking medals off the people who did swim in that race," Magnussen said.
On Monday there will be a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in in Lausanne, Switzerland, to determine what will come from Rickard's test results and whether the Aussie relay team's bronze medals will be stripped.
On Sports Sunday, in the wake of Rickard's positive test, world surf champion Layne Beachley was also critical of medals being taken from the entire relay team.
"He didn't swim the final," Beachley said on Nine.
"He swam in the heat. Stripping the guys who actually won the medals, I don't think is completely fair."
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