The International Olympic Committee said yesterday it had disqualified six sportspeople, including three Russian medallists, for failing doping tests at the Beijing 2008 Games.

The sanctions come amid a crackdown on Olympic athletes’ use of banned performance-enhancing substances that has now spilled over to the Paralympic Games as well.

Controversies over doping overshadowed the build-up to this year’s Rio Olympics and flared anew as US and Australian competitors branded their Russian and Chinese rivals drug cheats.

In the latest move, the IOC disqualified Russian bronze-medallist weightlifter Nadezda Evstyukhina, silver-medallist weightlifter Marina Shainova, and Tatyana Firova, who finished second with teammates in the 4x400m track event.

The Russian Federation team was also disqualified from the women’s 4x400m relay. All the sanctioned athletes were ordered to return any medals, pins or diplomas they had won in Beijing.

Bronze-medal-winning lifter Tigran Martirosyan, of Armenia, and fellow lifters Alexandru Dudoglo, of Moldova, and Inti-gam Zairov, of Azerbaijan, were also disqualified, the IOC said in a statement.

It called on sports federations to modify the results of the Beijing Games that were affected and consider what other steps they found appropriate.