Jamaica's gold medal winning relay team, Usain Bolt, 2nd right, Michael Frater, right, Asafa Powell, left, and Nesta Carter celebrate after the men's 4x100-meter relay final during the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing. File photo: Itsuo Inouye/AP Jamaica's gold medal winning relay team, Usain Bolt, 2nd right, Michael Frater, right, Asafa Powell, left, and Nesta Carter celebrate after the men's 4x100-meter relay final during the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing. File photo: Itsuo Inouye/AP
The Jamaican Olympic Association are considering whether to lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bid to save Usain Bolt’s ‘triple triple’ record.
Bolt is set to lose his 4x100 metres relay gold from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after his team-mate Nesta Carter tested positive for methylhexaneamine, a banned stimulant.
Carter’s 2008 sample was retested last June. His lawyer has already confirmed that his client plans to lodge an appeal to CAS.
“We have to decide what the best legal process is,” Mike Fennell, the Jamaican Olympic Association’s chief told BBC Sport.
“It is a team and we are interested in ensuring they are properly protected and given a fair chance of clearing their names.”
Bolt completed an unprecedented ‘triple triple’ at last summer’s Rio Olympics, winning gold in each of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m events for the third time.
Last June, when reports of Carter’s positive test first broke, Bolt was largely philosophical about the prospect of returning one of his gold medals but admitted that to do so would be difficult.
“It's heartbreaking, for years you've worked hard to accumulate gold medals and you work hard to be a champion, so it's heartbreaking but it's one of those things,” he told Jamaica’s The Gleaner.
“Things happen in life, if it's confirmed or whatever and I need to give back my gold medal it's not a problem to me.”
